After crafting some of the most compelling films of the last decade, Alex Garland is looking to step away from it all.
Speaking to The Guardian this past week, the director behind hits like Ex Machina and Annihilation has seemingly lost the passion he once had being a director. During promotion for his upcoming project, Civil War, Garland says he’s done with directing and looks to put his energy elsewhere.
While filming the latest film, Garland noted that it was time to step away from the director’s chair and focus on writing. Now, The Guardian has followed up on that sentiment, and it seems like the filmmaker is sticking to it. “Nothing’s changed,” he says. “I’m in a very similar state. I’m not planning to direct again in the foreseeable future.”
He goes on to say one of the more significant issues isn’t creative freedom but how the production wants him to spend the money. “The pressure doesn’t come from the money. It comes from the fact that you’re asking people to trust something that, on the face of it, doesn’t look very trustworthy,” adds Garland.
Check out the trailer for Garland’s potential final film below…
In the near future, a team of journalists travel across the United States during the rapidly escalating Second American Civil War that has engulfed the entire nation, between the American government and the separatist “Western Forces” led by Texas and California. The film documents the journalists struggling to survive during a time when the U.S. government has become a dystopian dictatorship and partisan extremist militias regularly commit war crimes.
Featuring in the cast of Civil War are Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeny, Stephen McKinley Henderson, and Nick Offerman.
Civil War is in cinemas on April 12th, 2024.
