Alex Garland reflects on Ex Machina by providing a "Antidote" to the toxic film sets he worked on

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Isabella Smith
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Alex Garland's Civil War, produced by A24


For his official directorial debut, Alex Garland found the filming atmosphere of Ex Machina quite refreshing.



By The Hollywood ReporterGarland and producer Andrew Macdonald reflected on their past work at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, including how Ex Machina launched Garland’s film career a decade ago. “I never wanted to be a director,” Garland confessed, explaining that her motivation behind the career choice was “to prevent administrators from changing things and the only way to do that was to occupy this position [of director].” Nevertheless, he appreciated the camaraderie that went into making his film, describing the cast as “young, very hard-working and very committed. We had a very friendly team who believed in the project and worked as hard as they could. There was a good atmosphere and everyone was pulling together.. It was friendly.


Alex Garland's Civil War, produced by A24

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More importantly, Garland and Macdonald appreciated the way Ex MachinaThe atmosphere gave them the opposite feeling of the previous films they worked on together. Civil war The director did not name any specific project, he lamented, “we had just made a series of toxic films and toxic film sets are extraordinarily unpleasant places. You can’t escape the quarrels, the division, the quarrels between the services. It’s just terrible. And I think Ex Machina came as an antidote to this. It was the exact opposite.” Before directing, Garland gained acclaim as a screenwriter on films such as 28 days later, Never let me goAnd Dreddalthough according to Dredd With Karl Urban as the lead actor, Garland was largely responsible for directing the Judge Dredd adaptation, although Pete Travis was given that title in the credits.


And I think
Ex Machina
came as an antidote to that. It was exactly the opposite.

With Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander and Oscar Isaac, Ex Machina follows programmer Caleb Smith as he visits the isolated home of his company’s CEO, Nathan Bateman, and eventually becomes part of an experiment to test his robotic creation Ava’s artificial intelligence and ability to feel human. The film was a critical and commercial success, leading Garland to direct Annihilation, Menand the recent Civil warwhich followed a war photographer (Kirsten Dunst) and her allies as they travel across a war-torn United States to Washington, D.C. to interview and photograph the country’s authoritarian president before he is forcibly removed from office. The film was criticized online prior to its release—ranging from its commentary on the divisive state of American politics to its AI-powered promotional art—but still received positive reviews, with an 81% score on Rotten Tomatoes at the time of writing.


Jodie Comer in 28 Years Later

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Alex Garland reunites with Danny Boyle 28 years later

Earlier this year, Garland and director Danny Boyle confirmed they were re-teaming for a new film. 28 days later continuation, entitled 28 years later. In addition to the return of Cillian Murphy, the new cast includes Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jodie Comer and Ralph Fiennes, although 28 years laterThe plot has not yet been announced.

Ex Machina is available to rent on Prime Video and Apple TV+.

Source: THR