Fresh off her first Oscar nomination for “The Hateful Eight,” Jennifer Jason Leigh is in early talks to join Natalie Portman, Gina Rodriguez and Tessa Thompson in Alex Garland‘s “Annihilation,” multiple individuals familiar with the Paramount project have told TheWrap.

Paramount had no comment, while representatives for the actress did not respond to requests for comment.

Scott Rudin is producing the adaptation of Jeff VanderMeer’s novel, which follows a group of women who take on a dangerous mission where the laws of nature don’t apply.

The group consists of an anthropologist, a surveyor, a psychologist who serves as the group’s de facto leader, and a biologist, who serves as the narrator.

There’s no deal in place yet for Leigh, though she does have the offer and appears eager to join the all-female ensemble after working with an all-male ensemble on “The Hateful Eight.”

Leigh is no stranger to working with Rudin, as the two of them produced “Greenberg” together. Rudin also produced “Margot at the Wedding,” in which Leigh starred opposite Nicole Kidman.


The actress is in the midst of a career renaissance thanks to her acclaimed voice work in Charlie Kaufman‘s Paramount release “Anomalisa” and her bloody-good turn as Daisy Domergue in Quentin Tarantino‘s “The Hateful Eight.” She next stars alongside Bella Thorne in “Amityville: The Awakening,” and she’s also playing Lady Bird Johnson opposite Woody Harrelson in Rob Reiner‘s political drama “LBJ.”

Meanwhile, British novelist and filmmaker Garland is coming off the success of “Ex Machina.”

Leigh, who is also gearing up to shoot David Lynch‘s new “Twin Peaks” series, is represented by CAA, Untitled Entertainment and Sloane, Offer, Weber & Dern.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens star Oscar Isaac is officially on board Alex Garland’s ANNIHILATION. Isaac joins Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gina Rodriguez, and Tessa Thompson in the forthcoming sci-fi thriller. Garland is set to direct his own script, adapted from the first novel of the ‘Southern Reach’ trilogy by science fiction author Jeff VanderMeer.

The story centers around a biologist (Portman) who, in seeking answers to her husband’s tragic disappearance volunteers for a government expedition into an area sealed off as an environmental disaster zone. What she discovers, however, is pristine wilderness, and a mysterious dark force within it.

The film is being produced by Scott Rudin through his Scott Rudin Productions, and Andrew MacDonald and Allon Reich through their DNA Films. Eli Bush will oversee for Rudin, while Alana Mayo and Nathan Samdahl are the studio executives for Paramount. Paramount and Rudin optioned the rights to the trilogy – which is comprised of the books Annihilation, Authority, and Acceptance – back in 2013, prior to its publication in 2014.

Annihilation re-teams Isaac with Garland after their wildly successful collaboration in last summer’s Ex Machina. The film, which was Garland’s directorial debut, was well-received with audiences and received rave reviews from critics – drawing particular attention for Garland’s writing and directing, as well as Alicia Vikander’s break-out performance. Ex Machina scored Garland an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay, and earned a surprise win for Best Visual Effects.

Isaac’s other past credits include the Coen Brothers’ Inside Llewyn Davis and J.C. Chandor’s A Most Violent Year. He’ll next be seen in Bryan Singer’s X-Men: Apocalypse and alongside Christian Bale in The Promise. In 2017, he’ll reprise his role as Poe Dameron in Star Wars: Episode VIII.

Annihilation will begin shooting later this spring in London.

Isaac is repped by UTA and Inspire Entertainment.

In the science fiction film Annihilation, Natalie Portman plays a scientist named Lena, who is part of an expedition tasked with exploring an area which has been taken over by a mysterious force. “[She] finds a very strange, dream-like, surrealist landscape, and goes deeper and deeper into that world, and also into that mindset,” says writer-director Alex Garland (Ex Machina). Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tuva Novotny, Gina Rodriguez, and Tessa Thompson costar as her fellow team members, while Oscar Isaac plays Portman’s husband.

One other character of note featured in the film? An alligator, as is revealed in EW’s exclusive first look photo, above. “It is their first tangible encounter with something strange,” says Garland. “The alligator has physical elements to it that should not belong on an alligator. They’re starting to get their heads around how weird the place is.”

Annihilation is based on JeffVanderMeer’s 2014 novel, the first book in the Southern Reach trilogy, which the author continued with Authority and then wrapped up with Acceptance. “I was in post-production on Ex Machina, and one of the producers of that film, Scott Rudin, called up and said, ‘I just acquired this book, I think it’s interesting and, would you take a look,'” says Garland, whose screenwriting credits also include Dredd and 28 Days Later. “I don’t finish books, or films, or anything, really, if it isn’t grabbing me for one reason. Well, I read it in a sitting. I found the atmosphere incredibly strong and I liked the kind of dream state that it created and put me in. It had all sorts of qualities that I found really interesting. I thought immediately, Yes, I’d like to try this.”

Isaac recently promised EW that Annihilation would be “very weird and very beautiful.” “That’s what we were shooting for,” says Garland. “The beauty part of it was quite important. Even when it’s grim, and something dark is happening, there’s quite an overt beauty, and we took pains to make sure that happened.”

Although the original book is part of a trilogy, Garland says he regards his film as a standalone movie. “I did once work on a film called Dredd, which I imagined to be the first part of a trilogy,” says Garland. “But it’s not something I like doing. I’d rather work on a story that I felt was self-contained rather than one that sort of had a ‘dot-dot-dot’ at the end. I think that provokes a sort of instant, understandable, cynicism. We sense the money grab and I feel that pollutes the story. So, right from the get-go, I did not think of this as being part of a trilogy; I thought of it as being just a single, self-contained movie. If other people wanted to do that, that would be fine. That’s none of my business. But from my point of view, it’s just one.”

Annihilation — a Paramount Pictures and Skydance presentation — is in theaters Feb. 23, 2018.