After a healthy career alongside Danny Boyle, crafting the scripts for The Beach (and its novel), 28 Days Later and Sunshine, screenwriter Alex Garland recently carved out a new path, taking on the esteemed Never Let Me Go adaptation, as well as a new version of Dredd. After producing a portion of the above projects, he’s looking to step up his filmmaking contribution with his first directing gig.
According to The Hollywood Reporter he will once again work with DNA Films for the project, which is titled Ex Machina. Staying in the comfortable arena of science-fiction, the independent robot thriller comes from a script by Garland and follows “a billionaire programmer who handpicks a young employee to spend a week at his remote estate and participate in a test involving his latest invention — an artificially intelligent female robot.”
With big name producers on board in the form of Scott Rudin and Eli Bush, this brief logline doesn’t look too far removed from Spike Jonze‘s upcoming Her, but will likely have quite a different style. Aiming for a shoot this summer or fall, the budget is set for around $15 million and we can hope it will land in theaters in 2014.
Are you looking forward to seeing Garland behind the camera?