Alex Garland

Alexander Medawar Garland[2] (born 26 May 1970)[3] is an English writer and filmmaker. He rose to prominence as a novelist in the late 1990s with his novel The Beach, which led some critics to call Garland a key voice of Generation X.[4] He subsequently received praise for the screenplays of the films 28 Days Later (2002), Sunshine (2007), Never Let Me Go (2010), and Dredd (2012). He co-wrote the video game Enslaved: Odyssey to the West (2010) and was a story supervisor on DmC: Devil May Cry (2013).

Alex Garland
Garland in 2018
Born	Alexander Medawar Garland (1970-05-26) 26 May 1970 London, England, UK
Alma mater	University of Manchester
Occupation	Novelist screenwriter director
Years active	1996–present
Spouse(s)	Paloma Baeza[1]
Children	2
Parent(s)	Nicholas Garland
Relatives	Peter Medawar (maternal grandfather) Jean Medawar (maternal grandmother)

In 2014, Garland made his directorial debut with Ex Machina, a science fiction-thriller which explores the emergence of artificial general intelligence. The film earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay and won three BIFA awards for Best Screenplay, Best Director, and Best British Independent Film. His second film, 2018's Annihilation, based on the 2014 novel by Jeff VanderMeer, was also a critical success. In 2020, he wrote and directed the FX on Hulu miniseries Devs.

Early life

Garland was born in London, England,[5] the son of psychologist Caroline (née Medawar) and political cartoonist Nicholas Garland. He has a younger brother, Theodore, and two older paternal half-siblings, Tim and Emily. His maternal grandparents are Nobel Prize-winning British biologist Peter Medawar and writer Jean Medawar.[6]

He was educated in a private, fee-paying school and later attended and graduated from the University of Manchester with a degree in History of Art.[1][7]

Career

Novels

In 1996, Garland's first novel, The Beach was published. The Beach is based upon Garland's own travels across Europe and Thailand, it tells the story of a young English backpacker who discovers an unspoiled sea shore occupied by a community of like-minded backpackers. The novel is noted for its references to drug culture, sequences of hallucinations and unique depictions of excess and utopia, which have been commended by critics. The Beach was initially met with positive reviews, and with a spreading word of mouth response the novel grew into a cult classic. Garland would later speak of the overwhelming discomfort with the fame The Beach had allowed him to achieve, "I never felt comfortable with it (the novel)."[1] The Beach has been translated into 25 different languages[8] and sold close to 700,000 copies by the start of 1999.[9] It was developed into a film starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

In 1998, Garland followed up The Beach with The Tesseract, a non-linear narrative with several interwoven characters set in Manila, Philippines. The novel is characterized by a post-modernist narrative style and structure. It explores several themes such as love and violence through each character's circumstance and context of surroundings as well as seemingly inconsequential actions and the repercussions of those actions on other characters. The Tesseract did not enjoy the critical or commercial success of The Beach, but it too was the subject of a film adaptation.

Throughout his career and work, Garland has expressed his love of travel (particularly backpacking) and his love of Manila, Philippines, much of which influenced his work.[8]

Film

In 2002, Garland wrote the screenplay for Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later, starring Cillian Murphy.[10] He has said that the script was influenced by 1970s zombie films and British science fiction like The Day of the Triffids.[11] Video games such as the Resident Evil series also served as an influence for 28 Days Later, with Garland crediting the first game for revitalizing the zombie genre.[12] Inspiration for the "Rage" virus came from real world infections such as Ebola and filoviruses.[11] He won a Best Screenplay honor at the 2004 Fangoria Chainsaw Awards for his script of the film.

In 2005, Garland wrote a script for a film adaptation of Halo. D. B. Weiss and Josh Olson rewrote this during 2006 for a 2008 release, though the film was later cancelled. In 2007, he wrote the screenplay for the film Sunshine – his second screenplay to be directed by Danny Boyle and to star Cillian Murphy. Garland served as an executive producer on 28 Weeks Later, the sequel to 28 Days Later. He wrote the screenplay for the 2010 film Never Let Me Go, based on the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro. He also wrote the script for Dredd, an adaptation of the Judge Dredd comic book series from 2000 AD. In 2018, Karl Urban, who played the eponymous role in the film, stated that it was Garland who deserved credit for also directing Dredd.[13]

Garland made his directorial debut with Ex Machina, a 2014 feature film based on his own story and screenplay. The film stars Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander and Oscar Isaac. The film won a Jury Prize at the 2015 Gerardmer Film Festival and earned Garland a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. The film's lead actress, Alicia Vikander, was nominated for a Best Actress award at the Empire Awards.[14]

Garland's second film, Annihilation (2018), was based on Jeff VanderMeer's 2014 science fiction novel of the same name. Garland has described it as "an adaptation which was a memory of the book," rather than book-referenced screenwriting, to capture the "dream like nature" and tone of his reading experience.[15][16][17] Production began in 2016,[18] and the film was released in February 2018.[19]

Television

Garland wrote, executive produced, and directed the eight-episode miniseries Devs, about the "mysterious ongoings at a tech company", for FX; the series was greenlit in August 2018, and premiered 5 March 2020 on FX on Hulu.[20]

It stars Ex Machina and Annihilation actress Sonoya Mizuno, alongside Nick Offerman, Jin Ha, Zach Grenier, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Cailee Spaeny, and Alison Pill.[20] Spaeny, who did not audition for the role as Garland had wanted her specifically for it, stated that Devs was short for "Development", and that the film would explore the idea of the multiverse.[21]

On 2 August 2019, Offerman confirmed that he had wrapped filming his scenes in Devs after six months of shooting.[22]

Video games

Garland is the co-writer on the video game Enslaved: Odyssey to the West for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. For his writing work on the game, he won a 2011 award from the Writer's Guild of Great Britain (along with co-writer Tameem Antoniades). Garland also served as a story supervisor on the game DmC: Devil May Cry in 2013.

Personal life

Garland is married to actress Paloma Baeza and has two children, Eva and Milo.[1]

Bibliography

Year	Novel	Notes
1996	The Beach	Ranked 103 in BBC's 2003 The Big Read poll.[23]
1998	The Tesseract
2004	The Coma

Filmography

Year	Film	Director	Writer	Producer	Notes
2002	28 Days Later		Yes
2007	Sunshine		Yes
	28 Weeks Later			Executive
2010	Never Let Me Go		Yes	Executive
2012	Dredd		Yes	Yes
2014	Big Game			Executive
	Ex Machina	Yes	Yes		Nominated- Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay Nominated- BAFTA Award for Best British Film Nominated- BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay Nominated- BAFTA Award for Outstanding Debut by a British Filmmaker Nominated- AACTA Award for Best Original Screenplay
2018	Annihilation	Yes	Yes
2020	Devs	Yes	Yes	Executive	TV miniseries

Video games

Year	Game	Notes
2010	Enslaved: Odyssey to the West	Co-Writer
2013	DmC: Devil May Cry	Story-Supervisor

Awards and nominations

Year	Film	Award	Category	Result
2002	28 Days Later	Fangoria Chainsaw Awards	Best Screenplay	Nominated
		Hugo Awards	Best Dramatic Presentation – Long Form	Nominated
		Saturn Award	Best Writing	Nominated
2010	Never Let Me Go	British Independent Film Awards	Best Screenplay	Nominated
		Evening Standard British Film Awards	Best Screenplay	Nominated
		Saturn Award	Best Writing	Nominated
	Enslaved: Odyssey to the West	Writers' Guild of Great Britain	Best Continuing Drama	Won
2015	Ex Machina	Academy Awards	Best Original Screenplay	Nominated
		Alliance of Women Film Journalists	Best Writing, Original Screenplay	Nominated
		Austin Film Critics Association	Best Original Screenplay	Nominated
		5th AACTA International Awards	Best Screenplay	Nominated
		Boston Society of Film Critics Awards	Best New Filmmaker	Nominated
		British Independent Film Awards	Best British Independent Film	Won
			Best Director	Won
			Best Screenplay	Won
		Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards	Best Screenplay	Nominated
		Chicago Film Critics Association Awards	Most Promising Filmmaker	Nominated
			Best Original Screenplay	Nominated
		Directors Guild of America Award	Outstanding Directing – First-Time Feature Film	Won
		European Film Awards	Best European Screenwriter	Nominated
		Florida Film Critics Circle Awards	Best Screenplay	Nominated
		Gérardmer Film Festival Jury Prize		Won
		Silver Scream Award		Won
		London Critics Circle Film Awards	Breakthrough British/Irish Filmmaker	Nominated
		Online Film Critics Society Awards	Best Original Screenplay	Nominated
		San Diego Film Critics Society	Best Original Screenplay	Nominated
		San Francisco Film Critics Circle	Best Original Screenplay	Nominated
		Toronto Film Critics Association Awards	Best First Feature	Won
		Washington DC Area Film Critics Association Awards	Best Director	Nominated
			Best Original Screenplay	Nominated
		Saturn Awards	Best Director	Nominated
			Best Writing	Nominated

References

1. Lewis, Tim (11 January 2015). "Alex Garland on Ex Machina: 'I feel more attached to this film than to anything before'". The Guardian.
2. Hume, Lucy, ed. (2017). "Garland, Nicholas Withycombe [entry]". People of Today 2017. Debrett's. p. 2,365. ISBN 9781999767037.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
3. Lovece, Frank (20 February 2018). "Unnatural Resource: Alex Garland and Natalie Portman probe the mysteries of 'Annihilation'". Film Journal International. Archived from the original on 21 February 2018. Retrieved 22 February 2018. Q. You were born in London, May 26, 1970? Correct? A. Yep, that's right. So I'm told.
4. Garland, Alex; Page, Michael (1 February 2000). The Beach. Brilliance Corp. ASIN 1567403549 – via Amazon.
5. "Alex Garland". British Council. n.d. Archived from the original on 9 February 2018. Retrieved 9 February 2018.
6. Bhattacharji, Alex (15 February 2018). "The Visionary Director of 'Ex Machina' Addresses the Controversy Surrounding His New Film". The Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 27 July 2020. (subscription required)
7. 'Annihilation' director Alex Garland chats with CNET about the upcoming film (YouTube). CNET. 8 February 2018. Event occurs at 14;40. Retrieved 18 March 2018.
8. Gluckman, Ron. "Hip author Alex Garland talks about The Beach". Gluckman.com. Retrieved 9 April 2017.
9. Stewart, Rod (7 January 2000). "Alex Hamilton's paperback fastsellers of 1999". The Bookseller. Retrieved 9 April 2017.
10. Scott, A. O. (27 June 2003). "Film Review; Spared by a Virus But Not by Mankind". The New York Times. Retrieved 31 January 2016.
11. Watson, Grant (6 November 2014). ""Something in the blood" | 28 Days Later... (2002)". Fiction Machine. Retrieved 21 June 2018.
12. Hasan, Zaki (10 April 2015). "INTERVIEW: Director Alex Garland on Ex Machina". Huffington Post. Retrieved 21 June 2018.
13. Urban in Shirey, Paul (7 March 2018). "EXC: Karl Urban Says Alex Garland Directed Dredd & Updates on Reprising Role". JoBlo.com. Archived from the original on 7 March 2018. Retrieved 8 March 2018. A huge part of the success of 'Dredd' is in fact due to Alex Garland and what a lot of people don't realize is that Alex Garland actually directed that movie. ... I just hope when people think of Alex Garland's filmography that 'Dredd' is the first film that he made before Ex Machina.
14. Barraclough, Leo (24 February 2015). "'The Imitation Game' Leads Race for Empire Awards". Variety.
15. CNET (8 February 2018). "'Annihilation' director Alex Garland chats with CNET about the upcoming film". YouTube. CNET. Retrieved 18 March 2018. @ 32m15s-33m30s
16. The Media Hub (10 February 2018). "ANNIHILATION (2018) - Alex Garland Behind the Scenes Interview - The Media Hub this week". YouTube. The Media Hub. Retrieved 18 March 2018.
17. Talks at Google (22 February 2018). "Alex Garland 'Annihilation' - Talks at Google". YouTube. Talks at Google. Retrieved 18 March 2018. @ 03m30 - "In this [adaptation] instance it was like an adaptation of the atmosphere."
18. Kroll, Justin (29 April 2016). "'Containment' Star Joins Natalie Portman in 'Annihilation'". Variety. Retrieved 9 April 2017.
19. Robinson, Joanna. "Oscar Isaac Re-unites with Ex Machina Director to Join the All-Female Cast of Annihilation". Vanity Fair. Conde Nast. Retrieved 30 March 2016.
20. "Alex Garland's Sci-Fi Murder-Mystery Series 'Devs' Greenlit at FX, With Nick Offerman and Sonoya Mizuno to Star". Indiewire. 3 August 2018. Retrieved 3 August 2018.
21. "Cailee Spaeny on What to Expect From Alex Garland's New Show, Devs". Indiewire. 26 July 2019. Retrieved 7 September 2019.
22. "Nick Offerman: 'Was just dreaming of negotiating a scene between Sandra Oh, Jodie Comer and myself on Killing Eve season 3'". The List. 2 August 2019. Retrieved 7 September 2019.
23. "The Big Read - Top 200 Books". BBC. Retrieved 9 April 2017.

External links

• Alex Garland on IMDb
• Backpacker Blues: Spike Magazine interview with Alex Garland
• Beach Boy: Salon interview with Alex Garland
• "Alex Garland is writing Judge Dredd"