After delivering thought-provoking and critically-acclaimed features like Ex Machina and Annihilation, Alex Garland is dropping a new kind of film in this month that could be his last directorial outing. In Civil War, America has become a modern-day warzone as the states of California and Texas join forces to fight the federal government.
Given the country’s increased politicization that’s already being heightened heading into the presidential election, Civil War is already embroiled in controversy, but that’s not why Garland has announced that he’s “not planning to direct again in the foreseeable future.”
While Garland still plans on writing — he’s returning to the 28 Days Later series he started with Danny Boyle — he has no interest in directing for quite some time, or ever again. However, his reasonings don’t have to do with his films often being misunderstood or the increased pressure of working with higher budgets. It comes from not wanting to disappoint his actors.
Via The Guardian:
“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.” He gives, as an example, sitting in a car park outside Atlanta, asking his Civil War cast to believe that one day the VFX blue screen behind them will be a night sky lit up by mortar fire. Or on Ex Machina where, “Alicia [Vikander] and Sonoya [Mizuno] are trusting that nudity is going to be dealt with thoughtfully and respectfully … [when] cinema leans towards not doing that.”
Heading into Civil War‘s theatrical release, Garland is increasingly zen that the film will generate a whole lot of weird reactions and that there’s not much anyone could do about it.
“It all could and will be misunderstood,” he told The Guardian. “It would be out of your control as it is out of mine.”
Civil War opens in theaters on April 12.
(Via The Guardian)