We’ve seen plenty of actors, producers, writers, cinematographers and even editors make the transition to director over the years, each bringing with them a different skill set that gives them a unique advantage in that position. Screenwriters would seem to have the biggest advantage of all because they have the story in their head and, in theory, they know exactly how it should be realized on screen. Previous Danny Boyle collaborator Alex Garland is the latest screenwriter to get a shot at helming his own film with an original project called Ex Machina. As you might expect from the guy who wrote 28 Days Later, Sunshine and Dredd, it falls within the realm of science-fiction, although it’s unclear whether or not it will contain any action or horror elements as well. More info after the jump.

According to THR, Alex Garland is teaming up with DNA Films for Ex Machina, not to be confused with the adaptation of Brian K. Vaughan’s comic book series. The story revolves around “a billionaire programmer who handpicks a young employee to spend a week at his remote estate and participate in a test involving his latest invention: an artificially intelligent female robot.” Scott Rudin and Eli Bush (The Social Network, Moneyball) are on board as producers and the project is budgeted at around $15 million.

Garland got his start in the movie industry after Danny Boyle adapted his first novel The Beach, then invited him to team up for 28 Days Later. His second novel The Tesseract was also turned into a movie by Oxide Pang. Most recently he wrote the screenplay for Dredd and Never Let Me Go, and he was also involved in the ill-fated Halo feature film and the Logan’s Run remake. Are you interested in Ex Machina? Do you think Alex Garland has what it takes to make the jump to director?

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