There's trouble in paradise brewing in Ron Howard's recent film, Eden, and Jude Law and Ana de Armas are at the center of it all. Vertical released a
There’s trouble in paradise brewing in Ron Howard‘s recent film, Eden, and Jude Law and Ana de Armas are at the center of it all. Vertical released a recent teaser trailer for the shadowy and sexy survival thriller that welcomes viewers to the idyllic remote island of Floreana, where a group of outsiders disillusioned with civilization make their home. It starts with Law’s Dr. Friedrich Ritter and his wife Dora Strauch’s (Vanessa Kirby) attempts at braving the elements and finding peace in the Galápagos, until more settlers come and complicate the existence they fought so difficult for. As everyone gets used to the unfriendly climate and wildlife, they quickly become each other’s greatest threats when ambition and human nature take hold.
Eden is the latest in a line of films from Howard based on a true story, taking inspiration from a group of European settlers who flocked to the Galápagos Islands in 1929 to establish their own paradise. The trailer emphasizes just how difficult that prospect is, though, with the arrival of married couple Margret (Sydney Sweeney) and Heinz Wittmer (Daniel Brühl). Inspired by the story of Ritter, they sail to Floreana only to find that life is brutal and failure is inevitable against the vicious storms and deadly wildlife. Still, the Wittmers are dutiful survivors willing to learn, unlike the bourgeois Baroness (de Armas), who arrives with a servant, lovers, and material goods in hopes of building something luxurious on the island. Coexistence isn’t effortless between the three very different groups, especially with the Baroness trying to pit them against each other, and tensions continue to escalate to a deadly extreme.
Responsibility for the screenplay fell to Tetris writer Noah Pink, who’s also known for his Emmy-nominated work on the anthology series Genius. Pink helped Howard bring to life a story that, as he told Collider’s Perri Nemiroff at the Toronto International Film Festival, he’d longed to tell for years because of its unpredictable characters in stranger-than-fiction circumstances. The very nature of the film’s inspiration meant shooting some complicated scenes to capture the range of emotions experienced by the inhabitants of the island and the evolving tone as things take a darker turn:
“Every day was intense. We were working on a tight schedule. It was very dense in terms of what the characters had to do because, without giving too much away, the tone shifts, and it’s all very organic. But by going to the places that these actual people had gone psychologically and emotionally, when you watch it, sometimes it’s outrageous. It’s funny. Sometimes it’s horrifying. Sometimes it’s a little heartbreaking. I hope it creates suspense. They were having to mine that and find that tone in the scenes every day, and sometimes one scene would lead one way and that’s what we’d be shooting in the morning, and in the afternoon, it would be something else altogether. So, I love working with actors on complicated scenes, but even I felt like it was kind of a tightrope walk all the time.”
‘Eden’s Killer Cast Made Waves on the Festival Circuit
Howard assembled a top-notch ensemble to bring his surprisingly shadowy feature to life, including Jonathan Tittel, Richard Roxburgh, Toby Wallace, and Felix Kammerer alongside the aforementioned names. Law and de Armas, fresh off of Star Wars: Skeleton Crew and Ballerina, respectively, will especially get the spotlight as clashing forces at the edge of the world. Although reviews for Eden have been mixed, with a 57% score on Rotten Tomatoes, the cast has been a highlight in the eyes of critics, including Collider’s Ross Bonaime. In his 7/10 review, he said the film “lives or dies by its ensemble, and Howard found a great blend of actors to each bring something new to this wild ride.”
Eden premieres in theaters in the U.S. on August 22. Check out the trailer in the player above.
Eden
Release Date
August 22, 2025
Runtime
120 minutes
Writers
Noah Pink
Producers
Brian Grazer, Karen Lunder, Mathias Herndl, Patrick Newall, Stuart Ford, Miguel Palos, Craig McMahon, David Taghioff, Namit Malhotra
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