Update: Watch the first trailer.

Following up his Oscar-winning Ex Machina, Alex Garland is returning to sci-fi for his next film, an adaptation of Jeff VanderMeer‘s novel Annihilation. Starring Natalie Portman, Gina Rodriguez, Tessa Thompson, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and David Gyasi, the film features a group of women — an anthropologist, a surveyor, a psychologist, and a biologist — who embark on a dangerous, secret expedition where the laws of nature don’t apply.

With filming now nearly wrapping up, today we have collection of images from the cast and cinematographer Rob Hardy (who shot Ex Machina) that show off what looks to be the perfect location for those that have read the book. He also states that the “only film to appear in the research library” for Annihilation is none other than Andrei Tarkovsky‘s sci-fi classic Stalker. Being that it’s also “a metaphysical journey into an area where the laws of nature do not apply,” this is certainly a fitting comparison, judging by VanderMeer’s nature-focused, mind-bending journey into an unknown abyss.

See the images below, along with some posts about inspirations behind the film’s look:

This morning. A photo posted by R o b H a r d y b s c (@rdhardy) on May 9, 2016 at 3:54am PDT

My boo. ? #annihilationFilm ? by director Alex Garland. A photo posted by Gina Rodriguez (@hereisgina) on Jun 17, 2016 at 4:15pm PDT

Lit with the magic of movie making, on Annihilation, with my sunshine @hereisgina ?? . Photo by director Alex Garland A photo posted by Tessa Thompson (@tessamaethompson) on Jun 28, 2016 at 12:37pm PDT

wrapped on Annihilation. quite possibly a very beautiful film. can’t wait [for you] to see. A photo posted by Tessa Thompson (@tessamaethompson) on Jul 5, 2016 at 9:57pm PDT

Zone A photo posted by R o b H a r d y b s c (@rdhardy) on May 13, 2016 at 1:09am PDT

Unrelated Paraphernalia A photo posted by R o b H a r d y b s c (@rdhardy) on May 23, 2016 at 2:50pm PDT

Smoke study A photo posted by R o b H a r d y b s c (@rdhardy) on Jun 1, 2016 at 12:05pm PDT

Thursday afternoon. A photo posted by R o b H a r d y b s c (@rdhardy) on Jun 9, 2016 at 3:01pm PDT

Military grade surrealism A photo posted by R o b H a r d y b s c (@rdhardy) on Jun 17, 2016 at 1:42pm PDT

Borders A photo posted by R o b H a r d y b s c (@rdhardy) on Jun 19, 2016 at 3:07pm PDT

Landscape with night around it. A photo posted by R o b H a r d y b s c (@rdhardy) on Jun 20, 2016 at 3:36pm PDT

Silo A photo posted by R o b H a r d y b s c (@rdhardy) on Jun 21, 2016 at 3:30pm PDT

Relevant paraphernalia. A photo posted by R o b H a r d y b s c (@rdhardy) on Jun 27, 2016 at 3:34pm PDT

A quiet tribute to the outer peripheries of a dressed set. Beautiful, austere and elegant, yet largely ignored in the face of brutal time restrictions and other seemingly arbitrary reasons, but somehow defiant of the fact that it will never appear in the film. #bscine @rdhardy A photo posted by BSC (@bscine) on Jun 23, 2016 at 2:47pm PDT

A preparatory image forming part of our research library for ANNIHILATION. This close up of a Bonsai was captured on a trip to the Botanical gardens in Brooklyn. Elegantly psychedelic, playfully surreal, and microscopically deformed with a twisted relentless intention. #bscine #alexgarland @rdhardy A photo posted by BSC (@bscine) on May 16, 2016 at 3:13pm PDT

An image from Andrei Tarkovsky’s STALKER. The only film to appear in the research library for our current project. For obvious reasons too numerous to mention here. A metaphysical journey into an area where the laws of nature do not apply. #bscine #stalker #alexgarland @rdhardy A photo posted by BSC (@bscine) on May 18, 2016 at 1:54pm PDT

As we await official images and footage, check out the Amazon synopsis below.

Area X has been cut off from the rest of the continent for decades. Nature has reclaimed the last vestiges of human civilization. The first expedition returned with reports of a pristine, Edenic landscape; the second expedition ended in mass suicide, the third expedition in a hail of gunfire as its members turned on one another. The members of the eleventh expedition returned as shadows of their former selves, and within weeks, all had died of cancer. In Annihilation, the first volume of Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Reach trilogy, we join the twelfth expedition. The group is made up of four women: an anthropologist; a surveyor; a psychologist, the de facto leader; and our narrator, a biologist. Their mission is to map the terrain, record all observations of their surroundings and of one anotioner, and, above all, avoid being contaminated by Area X itself. They arrive expecting the unexpected, and Area X delivers–they discover a massive topographic anomaly and life forms that surpass understanding–but it’s the surprises that came across the border with them and the secrets the expedition members are keeping from one another that change everything.

Annihilation will likely premiere in 2017.