Filmmaker Alex Garland and longtime producer Andrew Macdonald took the stage at the Edinburgh International Film Festival 2024 to reflect on their decades-long collaboration — and gave fans plenty to look forward to, including firm confirmation that the 28 Years Later trilogy is already well underway.
How Alex Garland Became a Director
Garland, who began his career as a novelist, was candid about his accidental path into directing. "I never wanted to be a director," he said. "I wanted to stop directors from changing things, so the only way to do that was by occupying that position."
The pair have collaborated across a string of acclaimed projects — The Beach (2000), 28 Days Later (2002), Ex Machina (2014), and most recently Civil War (2024) — building one of British cinema's most durable creative partnerships.
Ex Machina Is Garland's Favorite Film
When pressed to name his best directorial effort, Garland was clear: Ex Machina stands apart. "I enjoyed Ex Machina very much," he said. "It was an easy film to make. It was logistically easy, and that helped."
The production was deliberately stripped down — four weeks at Pinewood Studios and two weeks in Norway, with a minimal cast of Domhnall Gleeson, Oscar Isaac, and Alicia Vikander. "The cast were young and very hard-working and very committed," Garland recalled. "We had a very friendly crew that believed in the project. Shooting the movie could have been easy, since we had a limited cast and crew and all of us knew what the movie is all about."
Garland contrasted that experience with other, more difficult sets — "extraordinarily unpleasant places to be," he described them, plagued by "bitching, factionalization, and departments falling out." Ex Machina, he suggested, was a necessary antidote.
The Famous Dance Scene With Oscar Isaac
One of Ex Machina's most talked-about moments — Oscar Isaac's billionaire character Nathan breaking into a spontaneous dance — was no accident. Garland said he engineered the sequence deliberately to shatter the film's tense mood. The shift in tone, he argued, is essential for keeping an audience engaged rather than numbed.
The sales companies behind the film had initially pushed for Jake Gyllenhaal in the lead role because he was more commercially bankable. Both Garland and Macdonald held firm — a decision that proved correct given Isaac's performance becoming one of the film's defining elements.
28 Years Later Trilogy: What We Know
The most anticipated news from the Edinburgh session was confirmation of the 28 Years Later trilogy. Macdonald was direct: "There are, hopefully, three more 28 films — 28 Years Later is already shot."
The first film is directed by Danny Boyle, with Garland as writer — reversing their original 28 Days Later roles. The trilogy features an all-British cast and is set across northern England, including Northumberland and Yorkshire, with a reported budget of $75 million for the opening installment. Production on the second film was set to begin immediately after the Edinburgh appearance.
The first entry is expected to reach cinemas in 2025.
Civil War and Garland's Centrist Politics
Garland also addressed ongoing debate about whether Civil War — which has grossed over $122 million worldwide — takes a clear political stance. He was unapologetic about his position.
"I'm in my mid-50s and I'm a centrist," he said. "The idea that centrism is not a political position is idiotic. It is a political position. It is a political position against extremism — specifically against the extreme right, which I consider to be the biggest threat to democracy."
He pushed back against critics who read the film as apolitical, calling such arguments "stupid," and describing himself as a left-wing centrist who moves through the world from that perspective.
Edinburgh Film Festival 2024
The conversation took place at Tollcross Central Hall as part of the festival's industry keynote programme. The Edinburgh International Film Festival 2024 ran through August 21st, with Garland and Macdonald among its headline guests.
