Filmmaker Alex Garland joins his long-term collaborator and producer Andrew Macdonald in Edinburgh to reflect on their career relationship, favorite projects and Coming soon 28 days Zombie trilogy.
The pair have worked together on projects such as beach (2000), 28 days later (2002), Ex Machina (2014), and more recently, civil war (2024) spoke to a packed room of industry professionals (who hung on every word) at an Edinburgh International Film Festival event on Sunday.
Garland and McDonald discussed how they came to work together and some of the fights they’ve had over the years. Garland, who began his career as a novelist beach Before turning to screenwriting and eventually directing, he admitted that while he didn’t particularly enjoy directing, there was one film – his debut feature – that he considered to be at the top of his impressive resume.
“I never wanted to be a director,” Garland said, before getting laughs from the audience: “I wanted to stop directors from changing things, and the only way to do that was to occupy that position. [of director]”.
“I enjoy it Ex Machina It was very… it was an easy movie to make. It’s logistically easy, which helps. we have four weeks [London studio] Pinewood was shot in studio over two weeks in Norway. We have a very small cast.
Ex Machina Domnhall Gleeson stars as a young programmer who takes part in a strange experiment at the home of a genius scientist (Oscar Isaac), and becomes involved with a female robot ( Alicia Vikander).
“The actors are young, very hard working and very dedicated,” Garland continued. “We have a very friendly crew who believe in the project and work as hard as they can. There’s a great atmosphere and everyone works together. It’s friendly.
Garland elaborates on some of the “toxic” films he and Macdonald worked on, which were full of “complaints” and “fights,” and why Ex Machina Came just in time. “Speaking for myself, but I always speak for Andrew,” he said, “we had just made a series of toxic movies, and toxic movie sets are very unpleasant places to be. You can’t escape the bickering, the factionalism, the departmentalism. The quarrel between them is terrible. Ex Machina as an antidote. Quite the opposite is true.
The iconic scene where Isaac and his robot begin to dance is commemorated in a “gif” from his own take on never let Me GoThere, Garland explained, Garland learned that the film needed to “break the tone.”
Garland and Macdonald also talked about the upcoming trilogy of films following the apocalyptic thriller 28 days later and 28 weeks after. 2025, 28 years laterWith a budget of approximately $75 million, it will mark the beginning of a trio of films for Boyle, Garland and Macdonald. “We are making it now and hope to make three more 28 The first movie called 28 years later Alex wrote the script, Danny directed and shot it,” Macdonald said. “Then we’re going to start tomorrow morning, actually, on part two. And then we hope there will be a part three, and a trilogy.
Macdonald said the film will be a British sci-fi trilogy, with an all-British cast and set in northern England, specifically Northumberland and Yorkshire.
Garland and MacDonald each spoke about the difficulties of producing the recently released work civil warThe story takes place in a dystopian future America, where a team of military-based reporters are trying to reach Washington, D.C., before rebels take over the White House.
“We really can’t go to the United States,” McDonald said of complications from the coronavirus pandemic. “We had to wait, and then we had to get a special visa to go. We did it right at the end of COVID-19. We did it with the support of A24, who were amazing from a producer’s perspective. , because they supported what Alex wanted to do, which was one of the biggest budgets they had ever spent at the time.
When asked about the political nature of the film, he claimed civil war “Don’t take sides,” Garland said. “I’m in my fifties and I’m a centrist,” he said. “That’s where I am politically. I’m a centrist. I’m left-center. So I write, I think, I talk, I travel the world as a centrist. The idea that centrism is not a political position is silly. It’s a political stance. It’s a political stance against extremism, and I would say that’s really specific to the far right, because that’s the biggest danger that democracies tend to encounter, and they do.
He continued: “If you take this danger seriously, centrism is a position you can take. That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s right. That’s mine. The idea that centrism has nothing to do with politics is foolish.
civil war“Star Wars,” written and directed by Garland, grossed more than $122 million worldwide.
The Edinburgh International Film Festival runs until August 21st.
