Ex Machina’s Alex Garland Lifted the Curtain on FX’s Devs at NYCC – Gizmodo

Sonoya Mizuno is lead character Lily in FXs Devs.Image: FX

Director Alex Garlands (Ex Machina, Annihilation) latest project is headed to television rather than theaters. Up until now, we didnt have much to go on in terms of what FXs Devs was actually aboutbut thanks to a big coming out panel at New York Comic Con this past weekend, were extremely hyped for the sci-fi series.

io9 had the chance to sit down with the cast and executive producers after the panel to find out even more about this mysterious new series, but the panel itself gave intriguing insight into what fans can expect. Turns out, the logline for the eight-episode limited seriesa young computer engineer investigates the secretive development division of her employer, a cutting-edge tech company based in San Francisco, which she believes is behind the disappearance of her boyfriendbarely scratched the surface.

Sonoya Mizunowhos had roles in both of Garlands big-screen outingsplays Lily Chan, a woman whos seemingly lost her boyfriend (Sergei, played by Karl Glusman) to the company they both work for, Amaya, and is determined to find some answers. Attendees at the panel were treated to two scenes plus a first teaser, the first of which featured Sergei entering the top-secret development site (hence: Devs) for the company with its owner Forest (played by a very serene Nick Offerman).

Ex Machina is one of the smartest, most thought-provoking science fiction movies in ages. And that

The set is, in one word, gorgeous. The dev site is a floating cube in a vacuum held up by electromagnetic fields that sits inside a gold-leaf walled building. In the middle of the incredibly sterile, glass-filled cube sits an enormous structure that happens to be a tremendously powerful quantum computer, which is so impressive Forest tells Sergei hes not even going to bother telling him the unfathomable amount of computing power its capable of.

Im a sort of a science nerd. Im obsessed with science. I read more about science than anything else, Garland told the audience at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City when asked by moderator Damian Holbrook what the genesis of this particular story was.

It started with two things, he continued. One was getting my head around this principle of determinism, which basically says that everything that happens in the world is based on cause and effect. So nothing happens that isnt the result of a prior cause. And that has all sorts of implications for us. One is it takes away free will, but it also means that if you had a computer powerful enough you would be able to use cause and effect and use determinism in order to not just predict the future but also understand the past.

Yeah. Its safe to say Devs is going to take us on a wild ride.

At the time Sergei is recruited into the secret section of Amaya, hes working with an artificial intelligence program simulation to predict the movement of a very simple organism, according to Glusman. And I think that piques my bosss interests because it directly applies to what theyre working on which is...we dont know what theyre working on. Indeed. During the scene we saw, Offermans Forest offers Sergei a seat at a work station but wont tell him exactly what hes there to do, he just tells him to start looking at the code on the screen.

Oddly enough, it was a similar position most of the actors found themselves in while trying to parse their scripts and do research their rolesnone of them could understand the heady material.

If Im being completely honest, when it comes to artificial intelligence and computer programming....I bought this little book at Barnes and Noble called Artificial Intelligence for Dummies and that was quite a helpful resource for my work, said Glusman. Cailee Spaeny (of Pacific Rim: Uprising and the upcoming The Craft), who plays a boy named Lyndonon the show, added I read a book about the quantum world about three times and still didnt get it.

Garland, who hasnt worked in episodic TV before, wrote and directed all eight episodes of Devs and feels this story is more like one long movie. He also confirmed that while he appreciated having a lengthier space to tell his story, Devs will wrap up completely in eight episodes. The decision for that is, at least in part, as a result of his outlook on a lot of TV.

I am amazed by the people that do long-running TV series. Psychologically I dont know how they do it let alone find the time in the day. But its not something I want to do, he said, I like stories that end, right? You know, I like stories that end.And theres something you can start to detect sometimes in long-running series which is you start to realize Oh there is no end.This is just an exercise in how long you can keep it going.

When Alex Garlands Annihilation opens Friday, it will be the end of a long journey for the film.

Another reason for his turn to TV came from the much-talked-about distribution troubles with Annihilation.

My filmmaking career is: Ive made something, Ive given it to a distributor, and theyve said We dont want to distribute this. And at the point I turned the thing over, its as if I disappointed everyone, he explained. Ex Machina, was sold from the distributor, we made it to another distributor, A24 picked it up and we had problems with Annihilation...You know I could keep going back....Its simpler to say it was basically every film I ever worked on and I actually, I got sick of it. I just got sick of it and I thought I want...theres something about the construct of cinema at the moment, of the nature of opening weekends, and I just thought, Maybe...maybe this isnt the right space for me because the stuff I do is too odd and its not mainstream. Basically its not mainstream. So I thought maybe TV is a better home for me.

Time will tell if Garlands unique tales will work on the small screen of course. But while Devs is still quite a mystery, the writer-director was sure to specify the mystery behind what the tech company is working on isnt the main objective of the story.

The show is upfront. The card turn is not that this is what theyre working on, its the implications of that, he said. Its about how strange and profound some of the things that are happening in tech or science...just how sort of fundamentally they change the nature of our existence.

Devs is set to debut on FX in the spring of 2020. Stay tuned to io9 for more about the show from our time with Garland and the cast at NYCC.

For more, make sure youre following us on our Instagram @io9dotcom.

Link:

Ex Machina's Alex Garland Lifted the Curtain on FX's Devs at NYCC - Gizmodo