Alex Garland

Alex Garland (birthname: Alexander Medawar Garland) has developed a fascinating and diverse body of work in film, novels, and video games, often involving the impact of technology on society and the body, and the notion of how utopias can collapse. He achieved his greatest acclaim with his debut film as writer-director, Ex Machina (2014), and followed this with the underrated adaptation of cult novelist Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation. 

Alex Garland’s first popular success was with his novel, The Beach, published in 1996, and sold nearly 700,000 copies worldwide. It was then adapted to the screen by Danny Boyle, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tilda Swinton, and established a creative partnership with Boyle that included his scripts for 28 Days Later (2002), with Cillian Murphy, and the science fiction drama, Sunshine (2007), once again with Murphy. Garland’s developing interest in dramatizing the realities of artificial intelligence continued with his screenplay adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s exquisite novel, Never Let Me Go (2010), with Carey Mulligan, Andrew Garfield, and Keira Knightley. 

Alex Garland stepped up to the director’s chair for a very different angle on A.I. drama with Ex Machina, with Domhnall Gleeson, Oscar Isaac, and Alicia Vikander. Like his first novel, his first movie was a smashing success, including an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay. Garland’s next feature, Annihilation, was a natural: A deep dive into the SF sub-genre known as “The New Weird,” fostered most by novelist Jeff VanderMeer, starring Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Gina Rodriguez.

Though the reception was less than hoped for, especially from Paramount Pictures, Garland proceeded with Hulu’s limited series, Devs (2020), which also explores the multiverse and the psychological impact of the outer realms of computer technology. Although Garland’s third feature, Men (2022), with Jessie Buckley and Rory Kinnear, based on his original screenplay, would seem to be a departure from his interest in technology, it centers on female characters encountering existential threats much like Annihilation and Devs. 

Alex Garland filmed his fourth feature as writer-director, Civil War (2024), in 2022 with stars Kirsten Dunst and Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeny, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Nick Offerman, and Jesse Plemons, and released by A24 after premiering at the South by Southwest film festival. Garland was co-writer/director of his second war-themed movie in a row with co-writer/director Ray Mendoza of Untitled Garland/Mendoza War Film (date to be announced), starring Joseph Quinn, Charles Melton, D’Pharoah Woon-A-Tai, and produced by London-based DNA Films.

Following The Beach, Garland has written two other novels, the experimental work, The Tesseract (1998), adapted to the screen and starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers in 2003; and The Coma (2004). He has also written and developed video games, including the series DmC: Devil May Cry.