Even if you count just the roles of Opie Taylor in The Andy Griffith Show, Richie Cunningham in Happy Days, and the narrator in Arrested Development, Ron Howard has had an astounding career in the entertainment industry. That’s only a fraction of the story, of course, as over the past few decades, he’s become better known as an award-winning director.
His latest effort on that front is Eden, which fans have been waiting for since its Toronto International Film Festival debut nearly a year ago. It’s a wild one, even more so considering that it’s based on a true story, of an eclectic group of misfits who attempt to live very, very off the grid.
Ahead of the film’s release, keep reading for everything you need to know before it hits theaters.
Plot
The official logline reads, “Director Ron Howard’s Eden unravels the shocking true story of a group of disillusioned outsiders who abandon civilization, settling on a remote, uninhabited island only to discover that the greatest threat isn’t the brutal climate or deadly wildlife, but each other. As tensions spiral and desperation takes hold, a twisted power struggle unfolds, leading to betrayal, violence, and the deaths of half the colony.”
Howard previously told Deadline of the movie:
“Starting out a while ago with Apollo 13, I’ve been gravitating toward these kinds of stories based on real events. Where characters are really pressure tested and it reveals a lot about them. I think one of the reasons people find this one a little surprising is that here, the characters are so layered and complex, that the choices they made that we play out in the film are intense and shocking. They’re utterly human. It is a lot of fun to follow the events as the conflict unfolds.
It is a thriller, and part of that suspense is wondering who’s going to survive and why. This true story was so full of that. It is based on two wildly different accounts of the same unsolved mystery. As you delve into it, it certainly falls into that category of stranger than fiction.”
Cast
Eden is led by Jude Law, Ana de Armas, Vanessa Kirby, Sydney Sweeney, Daniel Brühl, Felix Kammerer, Toby Wallace, and Richard Roxburgh.
Sweeney previously told The Wrap of the film’s characters, “You read all these crazy characters, there’s no way that they all are real, and they all come together and they have all these experiences. But then I went and I read Dora [Strauch’s] book, and I read Margret [Wittmer’s] book, and I found all the newspaper clippings of all their stories, and it’s the most wild account of people just put together.”
Release Date
The film is set to hit theaters on August 22.
Trailer
Check out the Eden trailer below.