Oscar-nominated filmmaker Alex Garland (Men, Ex Machina, Annihilation) says he is planning to stop directing films following his newest movie, Civil War, at least for the time being. Speaking to The Guardian, Garland said he continues to feel how he felt in 2022, and that is that he wants to stop directing and instead write for other people.
“Nothing’s changed,” he said. “I’m in a very similar state. I’m not planning to direct again in the foreseeable future.”
In 2022, Garland told Screen Daily that he he feels “quite strongly that I should stop directing films and I should write for other people.” The idea, Garland said, is that he wants to try to “execute the film they want to make, rather than trying to force through the film I want to make, which is what used to happen in the old days.”
Part of the reason Garland said he felt this way in 2022 is that he had just 48 hours after post-production on the movie Men before he began principal photography on Civil War. “So maybe that was just exhausting,” he said. However, in 2022, Garland said he believed that Civil War would “definitely be my last film as a director for at least a while,” and he still feels that way now.
Garland told The Guardian that the pressure he feels “doesn’t come from the money,” but instead from something else.
“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 said. As an example, Garland said he asked his Civil War cast to picture in their minds what would be created behind them using CGI to animate mortar fire. And for his Ex Machina movie, he said an example would be lead actress Alicia Vikander trusting that her nude scenes would be handled “thoughtfully and respectfully.” In today’s cinema, however, the trend is “towards not doing that,” Garland observed.
And so, Garland wants to step away from directing–at least for now.
His new movie, Civil War, releases on April 12. It stars Kirsten Dunst, Cailee Spaeny, Nick Offerman, Jesse Plemons, Wagner Moura, Nick Offerman, and Stephen McKinley Henderson. It tells the story of a fractured United States with warring factions facing off in new… civil war.
