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Civil War film-maker Alex Garland: ‘In the US and UK there’s a lot to be very concerned about’ | Why making a thriller about a divided America pushed him to quit the director’s chair

Alex Garland has an enviable list of hits to his name, from 28 Days Later to Ex Machina. So why has making a thriller about a divided US pushed him to quit the director’s chair?

The zombie thriller gave Oscar-winner Cillian Murphy his first big film lead, playing a bike courier who wakes from a coma into a post-apocalyptic London, and has become a cult favourite: fans have been clamouring for a proper sequel ever since (more on that later.) It comes from the fact that you’re asking people to trust something that, on the face of it, doesn’t look very trustworthy.” He gives, as an example, sitting in a car park outside Atlanta, asking his Civil War cast to believe that one day the VFX blue screen behind them will be a night sky lit up by mortar fire. If, as he says he’s come to accept, his books and films are less like babies and more like 18- or 19-year-olds, “that can and probably should go out into the world and do their own things”, then this zombie franchise is a favourite child, always welcome to boomerang back home with Dad: “A whole idea for a trilogy just sort of came – bing!

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