The film adaptation of Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation starring Natalie Portman officially has a release date. According to The Hollywood Reporter the film will come out on February 23, 2018.
Written and directed by Ex Machina’s Alex Garland, Annihilation is based on the first novel in VanderMeer’s bestselling Southern Reach trilogy, which centers around a mysterious place known as Area X. The first novel follows four unnamed women — a biologist, an anthropologist, a psychologist, and a surveyor — as they embark on an expedition to check out the area. The twelve previous expeditions have all ended in sinister ways, with previous explorers returning with cancer, committing suicide, or not returning at all. Natalie Portman plays the biologist, whose husband was on the ill-fated eleventh expedition.
VanderMeer told Inverse that the movie will have some differences from the source material but fans should be pleased.
“The script itself, while sharing similarities with the novel, will also be vastly different in some ways,” he said. “But I can say I’ve seen some of the pre-production visuals and — in tone and texture and feel — [Alex Garland’s] approach is a perfect reflection of Annihilation. I couldn’t have gotten it closer if I’d written and directed the movie myself.”
Natalie Portman
Annihilation hits theaters on February 23, 2018.
