“Life,” an alien thriller starring Ryan Reynolds and Jake Gyllenhaal, will close out this year’s SXSW Film Festival.
The Columbia-Skydance film from director Daniel Espinosa will have its world premiere on the Austin, Texas festival campus on Sat. March 18.
“Our audiences will love this taut space thriller’s twists and turns as well as its amazing cast,” festival director Janet Peirson said in a statement.
“Life” follows a team of scientists on the International Space Station whose mission of discovery uncovers a rapidly evolving alien life form — one that caused extinction on Mars — and now threatens the crew and everyone back on earth.
“The people that flock to Austin each year are some of the most engaged and passionate fans of film out there and are the perfect audience to introduce our visceral sci-fi thriller. I hope that, with Life, we find new ways to entertain them, terrify them, and thrill them,” Espinosa said.
Rebecca Ferguson, Hiroyuki Sanada, Ariyon Bakare and Olga Dihovichnay costar. “Deadpool” screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick wrote the script, produced by David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, Bonnie Curtis, and Julie Lynn.
Columbia parent Sony Pictures has had luck in Texas before, last year alone debuting Fede Alvaerz’s “Don’t Breathe” and Seth Rogen’s “Sausage Party” at SXSW. “Life” opens wide on March 24, 2017.
Check out the full film headliner and narrative spotlight here — and SXSW’s annual midnight section here.