Alex Garland

Alex Garland
Alexander Medawar Garland (born 26 May 1970) is an English novelist and filmmaker. He rose to prominence with his novel The Beach (1996). He subsequently received praise for writing the Danny Boyle films 28 Days Later (2002) and Sunshine (2007), as well as Never Let Me Go (2010) and Dredd (2012). In video games, he co-wrote Enslaved: Odyssey to the West (2010) and served as a story supervisor on DmC: Devil May Cry (2013).
Garland made his directorial debut when he wrote and directed the sci-fi thriller Ex Machina (2014). The film earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay and won him three British Independent Film Awards (Best Screenplay, Best Director, and Best British Independent Film). His second film, Annihilation (2018), was an adaptation of the 2014 novel and was also a critical success. He wrote and directed the miniseries Devs (2020) and the horror film Men (2022).
Early life
Alexander Medawar Garland was born in London on 26 May 1970, the son of psychologist Caroline (née Medawar) and political cartoonist Nicholas Garland. He has a younger brother and two older paternal half-siblings. He is the maternal grandson of writer Jean Medawar and biologist Peter Medawar, the latter of whom was born in Brazil to an English mother and Lebanese father. He was educated at University College School in Hampstead and later graduated from the University of Manchester with an Art History degree.
Career
Novels
Garland's first novel, The Beach, was published in 1996. Based upon his travels across Europe and Thailand, it tells the story of a young English backpacker who discovers an unspoiled seashore 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. The Beach was initially met with positive reviews, and with a spreading word of mouth response, the novel grew in popularity; it led some critics to regard Garland a key voice of Generation X. He would later speak of his discomfort with the fame The Beach brought him. The Beach has been translated into 25 different languages and sold close to 700,000 copies by the start of 1999. It was developed into a film starring Leonardo DiCaprio. In 2003, the novel was Ranked 103 in BBC's The Big Read poll.
Garland's The Tesseract (1998) is 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 has a film adaptation.
Throughout his career and work, Garland has expressed his love of travel (particularly backpacking) and his love of Manila, much of which influenced his work.
Film
In 2002, Garland wrote the screenplay for Danny Boyle's film 28 Days Later, starring Cillian Murphy. He has said that the script was influenced by 1970s zombie films and English science fiction like The Day of the Triffids. 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. Inspiration for the "Rage" virus came from real-world infections such as Ebola and filoviruses. He won a Best Screenplay honor at the 2004 Fangoria Chainsaw Awards for his script of the film.
In 2005, Garland wrote a screenplay for a film adaptation of Halo. D. B. Weiss and Josh Olson rewrote this during 2006 for a 2008 release, although the film was later canceled. In 2007, he wrote the screenplay for the film Sunshine, which was 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 of 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.
Garland made his directorial debut with Ex Machina, a 2014 feature film based on his own story and screenplay. Starring 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.
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 [that] was a memory of the book," rather than book-referenced screenwriting, to capture the "dream like nature" and tone of his reading experience. Production began in 2016, and the film was released in February 2018.
In January 2021, Garland was hired to direct his third film, Men, which stars Jessie Buckley and Rory Kinnear. The film follows a young woman who goes on a solo vacation to the English countryside after the death of her ex-husband. The following year, it was announced that Garland was reteaming with A24 for his fourth feature, Civil War, an action epic starring Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, and previous collaborators Stephen McKinley Henderson and Cailee Spaeny.
Television
Garland wrote, served as executive producer, 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. It stars Ex Machina and Annihilation actress Sonoya Mizuno, alongside Nick Offerman, Jin Ha, Zach Grenier, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Cailee Spaeny, and Alison Pill. 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 series would explore the idea of the multiverse.
Video games
Garland and Tameem Antoniades co-wrote the video game Enslaved: Odyssey to the West for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. They won a 2011 award from the Writer's Guild of Great Britain. Garland also served as a story supervisor on the game DmC: Devil May Cry in 2013.
Personal life
Garland is married to English-Mexican actress Paloma Baeza, with whom he has a son named Milo and a daughter named Eva.
Bibliography
The Beach (1996)
The Tesseract (1998)
The Coma (2004)
Filmography
Feature films
Executive producer
Big Game (2014)
Television
Video games
Collaborators
Since he made his directorial debut, Garland has worked with several actors multiple times.
Critical reception
Awards and nominations
References
External links
Backpacker Blues: Spike Magazine interview with Alex Garland
Beach Boy: Salon interview with Alex Garland
"Alex Garland is writing Judge Dredd"
1970 births
Alumni of the University of Manchester
20th-century English novelists
21st-century English novelists
English screenwriters
English male screenwriters
Living people
People educated at University College School
Postmodern writers
Film directors from London
Writers from London
Science fiction film directors
English people of Lebanese descent
Video game writers
English male novelists
Directors Guild of America Award winners
20th-century English male writers
21st-century English male writers