
Yesterday there was another test screening and another five good reviews have been added in Letterboxd. I hope this makes Paramount decide once to release it this year:
https://letterboxd.com/film/annihilation/reviews/by/added/
Yesterday I mentioned a recent research screening of Alex Garland‘s Annihilation. Given Paramount’s announced intention to open it in March ’18, test-screening it nine months beforehand struck me as curious. A guy who attended the screening shares the following:
“The movie is definitely finished. Maybe they’re still making adjustments to music, but the cut I saw looked and felt like a finished project. As such, it stands to reason that they’re not testing it to see if something should be changed, but rather how and when they should market and release the thing.
“If you ask me, they’re trying to figure out whether or not they should release in fall 2017 for an awards in mind or release it in March 2018 for $$$. If they release it in the fall, it’ll be well reviewed but may be marginalized at the box office against the competition, although it may pick up a few technical nominations at the Oscars (and maybe others).
“In terms of potential awards contenders, Paramount has Darren Aronofsky‘s mother! (could gather some noms unless it outright sucks), Suburbicon (written by the Coens, directed by Clooney…sure to please, right?), and Alexander Payne’s Downsizing. So they might be testing to see if moving it back to 2017 is a wise choice.
“I spoke to one of the studio reps during a bathroom break, and he told me that they’re leaning towards moving it back to a 2017 release.”
Take this with a grain…
Paramount has set a Feb. 23, 2018 release date for Annihilation, the adaptation of the acclaimed sci-fi novel from Jeff VanderMeer.
“I’ve not had the pleasure of seeing it yet,” Isaac recently told EW, on a day off from playing the lead in Hamlet at New York’s Public Theater. “But I am certain that it will be very weird and very beautiful. You know, Alex Garland makes completely unique things, and he’s such a visionary, and I think it’s going to be a very powerful film. Maybe not for everyone — but that’s what’s amazing about working with artists like the Coens or Alex Garland, is that they follow their own creative impulses, and that’s, at the end of the day, how they make their decisions, following their own artistry and not making it all about things on the outside, and what’s going to please everyone. It’s so special to get to work with people like that.”
Even if everything goes to sh*t, I will always have a copy of Annihilation signed by the movie cast and director, an Annihilation movie satchel with Area X dog-tags, and an indestructible watch I bought with the movie money.
Is this a still from the Annihilation movie? Vote now--and check this space for some news tomorrow...(If you vote you don't win anything, but at least I have some confirmation you saw this horrifying image.)
Apparently, the Annihilation trailer includes a card "Based on the Acclaimed Best-selling Novel." Now let's hope the title of the movie hasn't changed...or that the card continues with "by Alex Garland."
In the science fiction film Annihilation, Natalie Portman plays a scientist named Lena, who is part of an expedition tasked with exploring an area which has been taken over by a mysterious force. “[She] finds a very strange, dream-like, surrealist landscape, and goes deeper and deeper into that world, and also into that mindset,” says writer-director Alex Garland (Ex Machina). Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tuva Novotny, Gina Rodriguez, and Tessa Thompson costar as her fellow team members, while Oscar Isaac plays Portman’s husband.
One other character of note featured in the film? An alligator, as is revealed in EW’s exclusive first look photo, above. “It is their first tangible encounter with something strange,” says Garland. “The alligator has physical elements to it that should not belong on an alligator. They’re starting to get their heads around how weird the place is.”
-Talk about the experience of seeing the rough cut of the film…
Yes, which is hilarious. We had a meeting with the Paramount executives ahead of time. Then my family and I saw the movie and it’s completely without context because there was no trailer or review, it’s a very strange experience watching a movie this way, with no context around you. Plus, when we saw it, it was late lunch time so we come out of theatre with absolutely nobody around, the whole floor at Paramount was deserted. There was nobody waiting to hear what I thought of the movie and it was surreal because it was such a nerve-racking experience.
-Were you anxious going into seeing the rough cut?
Sure. Garland was very kind, he asked for my notes on the rough-cut and I gave them and he said he was going to take most of them. Which, he’s under no obligation to do that so that was very nice.
-So where do we stand with the other chapters of the trilogy because Garland mentioned he wasn’t even aware that was two more novels?
I think he was focused on the one, just making that one a complete story. The novels are such closed vessels that it doesn’t really ruin anything. Despite the changes that he’s made I could see with very few tweaks them being able to make something like Authority though I think that probably what would happen is some of the bureaucracy stuff would be condensed and more of the spy/espionage element would come out more.
If Annihilation is successful, Paramount is fully within their rights to just make Annihilation 2 basically if they wanted to, they don’t have to do more of the Southern Reach. In my head it would be really awesome at some point to have a series or mini-series that’s just basically about the Southern Reach and those 30 years and the weirdness and everything else. But that’s just a dream I have, it’s not under development or anything else.
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