Filmmaker Alex Garland was on hand at New York Comic Con, along with cast members of his new FX miniseries ‘Devs’, to promote the new project which is coming to FX next year. Garland has distinguished himself in a short period of time, thanks to his unique voice, which was displayed in his cinematic directing debut ‘Ex Machina‘, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.
Unfortunately, Garland’s voice may have been too unique for Hollywood to understand. ‘Ex Machina’ was made for Universal and Focus Features, who decided they didn’t want to release it. Instead, smaller studio A24 released it. And even after ‘Ex Machina’ struck gold, Paramount decided it didn’t want to release his second picture, ‘Annihilation’. Instead it was sold to Netflix, however after some finagling, ‘Annihilation’ was given a theatrical release in North America, where it flopped.
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During the ‘Devs’ NYCC panel, Garland lamented:
“It’s basically been every film I’ve ever worked on. I just got sick of it… I thought maybe [film] isn’t the right space for me. Basically, it’s not mainstream. So I thought TV might be the right home.”
TV isn’t the ghetto it used to be. A lot of TV projects receive just as much acclaim as films, if not moreso. And the format allows directors the chance to tell more complex stories thanks to having more room to move and grow.
As Garland stated:
“I was really interested to know what it would be like to have closer to eight hours to tell a story rather than two. The scale and scope were very attractive.”
The eight-episode miniseries stars Sonoya Mizuno, Nick Offerman, Jin Ha, Alison Pill, Zach Grenier, Cailee Spaeny, Stephen McKinley Henderson, and Karl Glusman.
‘Devs’ is a limited series that focuses on a young software engineer named Lily Chan (Sonoya Mizuno) who works for Amaya, a cutting-edge tech company based in Silicon Valley. After her boyfriend’s apparent suicide, Lily suspects foul play and begins to investigate. She quickly realizes that all roads lead to Forest (Nick Offerman), Amaya’s enigmatic CEO, and Devs, the company’s secret development division. In Lily’s quest to discover the truth, she uncovers a technology-based conspiracy that could change the world.
Garland explained:
“[The idea for ‘Devs’] started with two things. One was getting my head around this principle of determinism, which basically says everything that happens in the world is based on cause and effect… That has all kinds of implications for us: It takes away free will. And if you had a computer powerful enough, you could predict the future and understand the past.”
FX has not yet set a date for the arrival of ‘Devs’ but check back for updates as they arrive.
Source: IndieWire
