Alex Garland's follow-up to the critically acclaimed Ex Machina is an instant classic...
Annihilation has had a troubled journey to your Netflix home screen. Green-lit by Paramount in 2014, the novel-to-screen adaptation of Jeff VanderMeer's best-seller was set to be director Alex Garland's follow-up to Ex Machina - his acclaimed debut feature. Cut to 2018, though, and this cinematic masterpiece has been denied a theatrical run everywhere but the US.
It turns out that conflict between test audiences, Garland and Paramount studio heads led to concerns about Annihilation's commercial potential. Labelled as too complex by studio execs, Paramount took the decision to sell the film to Netflix for overseas distribution and offer a limited theatrical run to American movie-goers. The film's release mirrors Paramount's The Cloverfield Paradox which arrived straight to Netflix in last month's superbowl. It's a damn shame too, because Annihilation might just be the best sci-fi horror since Alien.
