Oscar Isaac joins cast of Annihilation Actor reteams with Ex Machina Director for film adaptation

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Oscar Isaac is the latest addition to the cast of the film adaptation of Jeff VanDerMeer’s science-fiction novel Annihilation.

Academy Award Winner Natalie Portman is set to star in the film. Other cast members include Academy Award Nominee Jennifer Jason Leigh, Golden Globe Winner Gina Rodriguez and Creed‘s Tessa Thompson.

Alex Garland will direct the film and adapt the screenplay. Garland made his directorial debut last year with Ex Machina, which also starred Isaac and won an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects. Garland also wrote the screenplay for the film and received an Academy Award Nomination for Best Original Screenplay.

Annihilation is the first novel in Jeff VanDerMeer’s science-fiction series, The Southern Reach Trilogy. The trilogy is comprised of three novels, Annihilation, Authority and Acceptance.

The trilogy centers on Area X, a mysterious territory quarantined from civilization after a supposed environmental disaster. Several government expeditions have traveled into the area and met with strange disasters. The plot begins when a biologist, wishing to learn more about her husband’s disappearance, joins an all-female, four-person expedition into Area X. The group faces more than they planned when they discover the dark forces behind the mysterious area.

Portman will star as the biologist. Jason Leigh, Rodriguez and Thompson will play the rest of the four-person team. Isaac will portray Portman’s missing husband.

The film is being produced by Scott Rudin Productions, along with Paramount and DNA Films. Paramount optioned the rights to the Southern Reach Trilogy with Rudin back in 2013, prior to the the series’ publication in 2014. Annihilation won the 2014 Nebula Award for Best Novel as well as the 2014 Shirley Jackson Award for best novel.

Isaac can also be seen in the upcoming 2016 film, X-Men: Apocalypse as Apocalypse himself. He is also set to reprise his role as Poe Dameron in Star Wars: Episode VIII in 2017.

Filming of Annihilation is set to begin in London later this spring. A release date is currently not known.

About the author

Lindsey Capritta

Lindsey is a Valley Girl imagining herself a Brontë heroine (sadly, she is not witty enough to come up with that line herself). Lindsey reads constantly, be it fiction or history, which she loves to study. Lindsey adores musicals and theater in general and attempts to pattern her everyday dialogue after Amy Sherman-Palladino shows.