Alex Garland to Direct 'Annihilation'; Stephen Chbosky Remaking 'Patrik 1.5', and More

After the wildly enthusiastic response to the first Ex Machina trailer, Alex Garland's directorial future is looking brighter than ever. The Sunshine and 28 Days Later screenwriter has already lined up his next gig behind the camera, adapting and directing Annihilation, based on the first book in Jeff VanderMeer's "Southern Reach Trilogy". The premise sounds a lot like Danny Boyle's The Beach, which Garland adapted based on his own novel. Here's the Annihilation synopsis: A team of four (a biologist, an anthropologist, a psychologist, and a surveyor) set out into a place known as Area X. The area is abandoned and cut off from the rest of civilization. They are the 12th expedition. The other expeditions have been fraught with disappearances, suicides, aggressive cancers, and mental trauma. [Variety]

Stephen Chbosky (The Perks of Being a Wallflower) is attached to direct Patrik 1.5, a remake of the 2008 Swedish dramedy Patrik, Age 1.5.  The story centers on a gay couple looking to adopt a 1 and a 1/2 year-old-boy, but instead receive a homophobic 15-year-old because of a mistaken decimal point. Expect lots of hugs, tears, messages about tolerance, general heart-warming stuff Chbosky is good at.

Fede Alvarez, whose Evil Dead remake you've probably already forgotten about, is reteaming with Sam Raimi on a different kind of thriller, A Man in the Dark. The home invasion horror follows "a group of three teens who execute perfectly planned home robberies. Their final target is a reclusive blind man who's hiding millions of dollars, but when they break into his house, they find themselves up against a psychopath with his own secrets." Alvarez will direct and co-write with Rodo Sayagues, with Raimi on board as producer. [THR]