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- The real-life story behind 'Eden,' Ron Howard's dark crime movie</p>
<p>Marco della Cava, USA TODAYAugust 21, 2025 at 11:15 PM</p>
<p>About 15 years ago, director Ron Howard took his family on vacation. Call it a bucket list trip, one that took his brood to the epic Galapagos Islands about 600 miles off the coast of Ecuador.</p>
<p>The result of that trek was terrific family bonding and, many years later, "Eden" (in theaters Aug. 22), a movie anchored to a true crime mystery that wormed its way into Howard's brain while on the islands.</p>
<p>"It was our dinner conversation the whole trip," says Howard. "I've loved this story for a long time."</p>
<p>It's quite the tale: "Eden" speculates on the deaths of members of an experimental community on the island of Floreana in the 1930s. The group includes a German doctor, Friedrich Ritter (Jude Law), who is eager to get away from his fascist-leaning country, and his wife Dora (Vanessa Kirby).</p>
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<p>Ana de Armas (center) plays an imperious baroness bent on building a hotel on a tropical island in "Eden," Ron Howard's new movie.</p>
<p>Inspired by the Ritters, who have publicized their seemingly idyllic lives in newspaper articles, Heinz (Daniel Brühl) and Margret Wittmer (Sydney Sweeney) make their way to Floreana, much to the Ritters' displeasure at having company.</p>
<p>But then things get even more tense with the arrival of Baroness Eloise Bosquet de Wagner Wehrhorn (Ana de Armas) and her two male companions. The baroness is determined to build a hotel on the island, which a century ago might as well be like building a hotel on the moon. While things are barely cordial initially, they quickly devolve.</p>
<p>"I always wondered how people would respond to the strangeness of the story, it's almost too wild to be true," Howard says. "I thought about the show 'Survivor,' because that's what this really was. And here people died."</p>
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<p>Ron Howard's 'Eden' is anything but: 'You've got to make it where you are'</p>
<p>Howard turned to writer Noah Pink (2023's "Tetris") and challenged him to pull the threads together.</p>
<p>"I read the books written by two of the women on the island, and when I saw they were very different memoirs, that led to a mystery of what really happened," Pink says. "What interested me wasn't just the 'Lord of the Flies' nature of it, but that three groups of people were all asking the same big question. What is the meaning of life?"</p>
<p>During the pandemic, Howard says, "so many people were talking about being off the grid, and this is the ultimate off-the-grid story. Many of us are frustrated by the pressure cooker of society today, but running away from it all is not it. Our story says, 'These people tried, have a look.' So you've got to make it where you are."</p>
<p>Director Ron Howard on the set of "Eden," which is a based on a true murder-mystery story that Howard was exposed to during a trip to the Galapagos Islands many years ago.</p>
<p>The film is not typical Howard fare. Whether it's "Apollo 13" or "Rush," the director's movies usually leave film fans on a buoyant note. "Eden" depicts its protagonists searching for exactly that, but what they find is quite hellish. It was the departure from his favored subject matter that intrigued Howard.</p>
<p>"I'm an optimist, and I love real events that generally are celebratory," Howard says. "But this story is cautionary if not tragic. That's a different tone for me. These are wilder, more sexually dangerous characters than I usually work with. And it's a crime story, which outside of 'Ransom,' I haven't worked with. There was something about these characters and what they say about the human experience that grabbed me."</p>
<p>The stars of 'Eden' endured 100-degree heat and menacing snakes</p>
<p>It did not hurt that when it came time to make "Eden," actors lined up for the roles.</p>
<p>"We found many who were fascinated by the true story and Noah's treatment of it," he says. "They all were troopers, too. No one got paid their (usual) fees, it was about going on a creative adventure together."</p>
<p>Vanessa Kirby and the rest of the "Eden" cast had to contend with 100-degree temperatures as well as snakes and spiders during the Australian shoot.</p>
<p>The movie was filmed largely in a rugged part of Australia, where the fauna kept actors and crew alike on their toes.</p>
<p>"We needed snake and spider wranglers, because the location was infested," Howard says. "We'd have to stop shooting because a snake crawled over a camera operator's boot."</p>
<p>In "Eden," Sydney Sweeney arrives on Floreana island as a young wife, but becomes fiercely independent in the course of her time on the barren tract.</p>
<p>While both Law and Brühl's characters are formidable and stoic frontiersmen, it's actually the women in the story who prove to be fierce and unbreakable.</p>
<p>"This movie is showcasing this very raw version of female empowerment," Howard says. "(The baroness) is a total narcissist and driven by her vision. Today, she'd be an influencer with her own brand, but back then, forging ahead on your own like that was impossible."</p>
<p>The other key players, played by Kirby and Sweeney, are in Floreana "because their men want them there, but we see them become alphas, and I loved that."</p>
<p>How do you get dogs to behave like wild beasts? 'A lot of treats'</p>
<p>In one memorably powerful scene, Sweeney's pregnant Margret is alone in the family's hut when her water breaks. The island's hungry wild dogs sense this and immediately encircle her, snarling and howling. While the scene is harrowing on film, the actual shoot had its lighter moments.</p>
<p>Jude Law and Vanessa Kirby play a German husband and wife who decamp to a deserted island in "Eden," a new movie from director Ron Howard.</p>
<p>"It was 100 degrees out when Sydney shot it, and that was just so impressive," Howard says. But canine fans should know that the dogs were kept inside air-conditioned trailers until it was time for the cameras to roll. "They'd come out for 10 minutes, then go back into the trailers, back and forth," Pink says.</p>
<p>Howard laughs. "There were takes when a dog would bark fiercely, and then just turn and look at us, and it seemed like he was saying, 'Are you kidding me with this, are we done here?'"</p>
<p>To get the needed drama, the dogs were commanded to snarl viciously, and then they would immediately get a treat. And then they'd repeat the task.</p>
<p>Pink adds that in post-production, editors had to digitally manipulate one small aspect of the scene: wagging tails. "They were quite happy to do it," he says. "They got a lot of treats."</p>
<p>This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Eden' casts Sydney Sweeney and Ana de Armas in a cautionary tale</p>
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