Geoff Barrow and Ben Salisbury are reteaming with Alex Garland on the upcoming sci-fi thriller Annihilation. The film is written and directed by Garland (Dredd, The Beach, Sunshine, 28 Days Later…) and stars Natalie Portman, Oscar Isaac, Gina Rodriguez, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tessa Thompson and David Gyasi. The movie is based on Jeff VanderMeer’s novel of the same title and follows a biologist who embarks on a four-person expedition into Area X, a territory cut off from civilization, where she must deal with a mysterious contamination, disappearing colleagues, a deadly animal while searching for clues regarding her husband’s disappearance. Scott Rudin (No Country for Old Men, The Social Network, The Grand Budapest Hotel) is producing the project with Andrew MacDonald & Allon Reich (Never Let Me Go, Far From the Madding Crowd). Barrow and Salisbury have previously collaborated with Garland on last year’s Ex Machina. Annihilation is expected to be released in 2017 by Paramount Pictures.
Barrow and Salisbury have also recently scored the upcoming action thriller Free Fire. The film is directed by Ben Wheatley (High-Rise, Kill List) and stars Brie Larson, Cillian Murphy, Armie Hammer, Michael Smiley, Sharlto Copley, Jack Reynor and Babou Ceesay. The movie is set in Boston in the late 1970s and revolves around a meeting in a deserted warehouse between two gangs, which turns into a shootout and a game of survival. Wheatley has written the screenplay with Amy Jump and Andrew Starke (Sightseers) is producing the project. Free Fire will premiere in October at the London Film Festival and A24 is expected to release the movie in the U.S. in 2017.
