Israeli-born American actress Natalie Portman already has a special place in the hearts of sci-fi fans after she played the role of Queen Amidala in the Star Wars franchise, and it looks like there is a huge chance that the actress will take on another sci-fi role as Alex Garland's Annihilation is targeting her for the lead role, therefore endearing her all the more to sci-fi fanatics.
Annihilation will be an adaptation of Jeff VanderMeer's same-titled science fiction novel, and it has reportedly been in development since 2013 when producer Scott Rudin bought the rights and set the project up at Paramount, according to Empire Online. Garland signed on with the movie project in November last year, and is now working on building his cast and crew.
VanderMeer's book is all about a mysterious expedition into a remote and sealed-off zone called "Area X." For over 30 years, Area X has been deemed by the government as an environmental disaster zone, despite appearing as a pristine and untouched wilderness.
What the government does not know, however, is that there has been a secret agency called the Southern Reach that has been monitoring Area X for the past 30 years, and now the secret agency has sent an expedition in order to find the truth about Area X.
Not all expeditions that have been sent to Area X have been a success though, and some have even encountered deadly and terrifying consequences. Meanwhile, there have been other expeditions that noted nothing out of the ordinary.
The interest of Southern Reach gets more fuelled this time though since Area X seems to be changing and expanding, and they are determined more than ever to discover the secrets of the place and figure out the nature of the invisible border that surrounds it.
Should she finally agree to be part of the movie, Portman will be the lead character, who happens to be a biologist who takes on the latest expedition with her colleagues. The lead character's husband already lost his life in an earlier expedition, and the biologist is determined to find out what happened to him at all cost. However, a lot of unexpected events greet them once they get to Area X, and the crew finds out that they are actually being manipulated by unknown forces.
Portman will next be seen in the movie Jane Got a Gun on September 4 as well as Terrence Malick's Knight of Cups, with a release date of January 1, 2016. She has also been busy with her directorial debut called A Tale of Love and Darkness, which she will be bringing to the Cannes Film Festival.
