Ever since Danny Boyle adapted his novel The Beach for the screen, novelist Alex Garland has slowly but surely been creeping his way towards trying out every creative position in cinema, except possibly focus puller. He’s been a screenwriter and producer for a while now, but is leaping into the director’s chair for Ex Machina.

Garland wrote the script for the thriller, in which a billionaire handpicks one of his employees to spend a week at his remote estate. It’s all part of a test designed to help with his latest invention – an artificially intelligent female robot. As Austin Powers or anyone who has seen a sci-fi B-movie could point out, that sounds like a recipe for danger and possible genital electrocution.

DNA Films, which has worked with Garland on several titles including Dredd and Never Let Me Go, is producing alongside Scott Rudin and Eli Bush. Together, they’re drumming up the roughly $15 million budget to for a shoot later this year. We're hoping for something along the lines of a cinematic Black Mirror episode, and given Garland's talent for tone, it's possible. For more from Garland, here he is with Judge Dredd co-creator John Wagner talking Dredd.