Movies
Alex Garland Has Precisely Zero Interest in Making an ‘Annihilation’ Sequel
Today marks the home video release of Ex Machina director Alex Garland’s Annihilation, now available on DVD and Blu-ray. The Natalie Portman-starring sci-fi/horror film was well received by critics even if it wasn’t a financial success, but it’s unquestionably the sort of movie that’s going to amass a huge fanbase in the years to come.
So then, would Garland ever be interested in returning to The Shimmer for a sequel? Speaking with Indiewire, Garland emphatically drove a stake into the heart of that one.
“I’ve got no objection to someone else doing that, but I’m not interested in the idea of a sequel,” Garland told the site. “I feel like we made this movie and this is the movie we made.”
[Related] Want to See the Nightmarish Monster Bear from ‘Annihilation’ in All Its Glory?
He continued, “When the thing is done, I am done with it. I instantly start moving on, so I don’t even have an opinion on an Annihilation sequel. All the way through I was clear with everyone, from the studio to the cast, I told everyone that I didn’t really see it as part of a franchise. My goal was to make this film and do the best job I can. I didn’t even conceptualize it as the start of a trilogy. Sequels are just not something I’m interested in doing. I just don’t do sequels.”
It’s worth noting that Jeff VanderMeer’s 2014 novel Annihilation, which the movie was based on, was the first novel in a series called The Southern Reach Trilogy.
Norway’s deepest fjord isn’t just unleashing a mythic monster in Kraken, but its monstrous deep sea parasites as well.
Watch our exclusive clip below, which introduces the skittering, skin-crawling aquatic menaces on the attack.
Samuel Goldwyn Films will release the Kraken in select theaters and on digital June 12.
Here’s the synopsis: “A marine biologist encounters several strange occurrences while researching a fjord, including the brutal deaths of two local teenagers. At the bottom of Norway’s deepest fjord rests a mythical monster as large as a mountain, with a myriad of arms ready to crush and devour anything they can grab.”
Pål Øie (The Tunnel) directs from a script by Vilde Eide, Kjersti Jelen Rasmussen, and Natasha Arthur.
Sara Khorami (Troll 2), Mikkel Bratt Silset, Øyvind Brandtzæg, Jenny Evensen, Ingvild Holthe Bygdnes, Jon Erik Myre, Hans Morten Hansen, Steinar Klouman Hallert, and Filip Bargee Ramberg star.
The behemoth beast from the deep is the latest kaiju-sized aquatic creature harboring a horde of bloodthirsty parasites, joining the likes of Cloverfield and Underwater. Naturally, the Kraken itself serves as the much bigger threat.
It’s also about time that the Kraken received its own feature; though Meg 2: The Trench featured a Kraken-like beast in its climax, the Kraken hasn’t been fully unleashed since Clash of the Titans.
Watch out for the Kraken in limited theaters and on VOD this Friday.