Director Alex Garland has already landed Natalie Portman, Tessa Thompson (CREED) and Gina Rodriguez (Jane the Virgin) for his EX MACHINA follow-up ANNIHILATION, and now The Wrap is reporting that Jennifer Jason Leigh is in talks to join them in the sci-fi thriller. A deal hasn't been made yet, but Leigh does have an offer, and "appears eager to join the all-female ensemble after working with an all-male ensemble on The Hateful Eight.”
2015 was a banner year for Leigh. The actress is up for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her turn in the Quentin Tarantino-directed Western, and she also lent her voice to another Oscar-nominated film, Charlie Kaufman's stop-motion flick ANOMALISA.
Garland's next directorial effort, which is an adaptation of the Jeff VanderMeer novel of the same name, will follow "a group of women (an anthropologist, a surveyor, a psychologist and a biologist) who take on a dangerous mission where the laws of nature don’t apply." Portman has been cast as the biologist, while Thompson, Rodriguez and Leigh (if she does officially sign on, of course), will play the other members of the team. Filming for ANNIHILATION should begin this spring, and it will likely open either late 2016 or sometime in 2017.