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Sydney Sweeney’s career has intrigued critics and audiences alike, and her latest movie, Americana, currently holds a 67% critic and 77% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. Her last Certified Fresh movie was Immaculate, a horror movie that earned a solid 72% on the Tomatometer.

This highlights her streak of critically favored offbeat projects, and interestingly, her most acclaimed performances rarely come from big-budget movies. From intense thrillers like Reality to experimentals like Eden, it’s become increasingly clear that Sweeney thrives when she plays unconventional parts.

So, let’s look at how she’s continued this trend in Americana and Eden, and will likely do so in her other releases lined up for 2025.

Sydney Sweeney Proves Her Mettle Yet Again in Americana and Eden

Sydney Sweeney’s recent run with Americana and Eden, which will be released on August 22, 2025, underscores how she has a gift for disappearing into layered characters. In Americana,...

Seven months after the Star Wars: Skeleton Crew finale was released, Jude Law provides an uncertain update about his potential future in the franchise. Law plays the Force-sensitive pirate Jod Na Nawood in the Star Wars show, where he crosses paths with four children he believes can lead him to the treasures of At Attin.

With a 92% critical score on Rotten Tomatoes, Skeleton Crew reviews were overwhelmingly positive. The series received extensive praise for being a thrilling adventure that got back to the original Star Wars' roots, didn't require knowledge from other stories in the franchise, and featured stellar performances from the entire cast, including from Law.

During a ScreenRant interview with Law for his new film Eden, he was asked whether there is a future for Jod in Star Wars. He explains that in the finale, Jod is also thinking about how his story can continue. While Law is...

Sydney Sweeney's breakthrough began in 2018, when she drew notice in the nostalgic teen dramedy Everything Sucks!, delivered a chilling performance in Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale, and played a troubled young woman in HBO's Sharp Objects. Not long after, she made her big-screen debut in Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, playing a member of the infamous Manson family.

Her career quickly gained momentum with two standout HBO series – the raw, emotionally charged Euphoria and the sharp social satire of The White Lotus season 1 – earning Emmy nominations for both. In 2023, she displayed impressive range, taking on the role of a whistleblower in the tense HBO drama Reality while also showcasing her comedic side in the hit rom-com Anyone But You.

By 2024, Sweeney pushed her versatility even further, entering the superhero realm with Madame Web and headlining the psychological horror film Immaculate. In 2025, Sweeney's slate remains busy,...

Ron Howard is drawn to dreamers, and at the center of his survival thriller Eden, which is based on the true events of the Galápagos Affair, is a man who dreams bigger than most: Dr. Friedrich Ritter (Jude Law), who moved to the Galápagos isle of Floreana in the 1930s with this wife, Dore Strauch (Vanessa Kirby) to write about his radical philosophies.

Ritter claims that “pain is truth,” and he soon begins to suffer. His dream of utopia becomes a nightmare when others begin descending upon Floreana, from a couple, Heinz (Daniel Brühl) and Margret Wittmer (Sydney Sweeney), who hear about the Ritters’ exploits, to the Baroness Bosquet de Wagner Wehrhor (Ana de Armas), who shows up with her lovers (Felix Kammerer and Toby Wallace) in tow, wanting to build an exclusive hotel on the island. As Ritter pits everyone against each other, his paradise turns rotten. Food and animals are stolen,...

Note: This review was originally published as part of our 2024 TIFF coverage. Eden opens in theaters on August 22.

On paper, there are few filmmakers who seem less-suited to the rigors of a project like Eden than Ron Howard. This is the grim story, after all, of real-life individuals in the late 1920s who were so troubled by the state of humankind that an escape to the Galápagos Islands seemed like the only sensible way out. This is a tale replete with deception, murder, tooth-extraction, one of the more ridiculous childbirth scenes in cinema, and, in what may be a first for Howard, male frontal nudity. (Though my memory of Cocoon is fuzzy.)

Still, Howard deserves credit for taking on a variety of complex projects along with his more audience-friendly efforts. For every The Da Vinci Code or Solo: A Star Wars Story, there is a Frost/Nixon or Rush. (Let...

I always love talking to Ron Howard. Not only is he very knowledgeable about the world of cinema, he is also very sweet and kind. Juxtapose that with his current film “Eden” about the dark recesses of the human heart and you’ll have a very interesting conversation. In the film, Jude Law and Vanessa Kirby

The post Oscar-Winner Ron Howard Talks About Directing “Eden” appeared first on Manny the Movie Guy.

Vanessa Kirby is having a terrific summer. Not only is she headlining Fantastic Four: First Steps as Sue Storm, aka The Invisible Woman, while simultaneously shooting Avengers: Doomsday, but she’s also got two brand-new movies coming out this August. One of those movies is Ron Howard’s Eden, in which she’s joined by an all-star cast including Jude Law, Ana de Armas, and Sydney Sweeney (read our review here). The other, Night Always Comes, definitely should not get lost in the shuffle.

The movie, which made its Netflix debut on Friday, features Kirby cast way against type as a woman struggling to save her family home over a tense twenty-four-hour period that pushes her to the edge. She co-stars with Jennifer Jason Leigh, Zack Gottsagen (who you may remember from The Peanut Butter Falcon), Julia Fox, and several others, in this contained thriller that puts us in the...

Plot: The shocking true story of a group of Europeans who settle on a remote island only to discover their greatest threat isn’t the brutal climate or deadly wildlife, but each other.

Review: When you think of stories about survival in remote locations that descend into brutality, the first tale that likely pops into your mind is Lord of the Flies. The classic novel about children forming a society that quickly devolves from a hierarchy of power into bloodshed and death has long been a cautionary tale for all. It is a shocking story we can enjoy because we know it is fiction. It becomes even more disturbing when that same narrative is told but based on actual events. Eden, the latest film from Ron Howard, is based on the actual events that occurred in the 1930s when settlers on the remote island of Floreana in the Galapagos Islands.

Sydney Sweeney’s new movie, Americana, has only opened to $500,000 across 1000 theaters. And the figure has instantly sparked headlines about this being a terrible box office performance. But the numbers don’t tell the full story here because, according to indie film economics, Americana is expected to bring in profits for Lionsgate (via Deadline).

The studio picked up the movie for $3 million, and 60% of it was already covered in foreign pre-sales. The combined marketing for PVOD and theatrical release is also under $3 million because it relied mostly on digital and in-theater trailer promotions, and in the end, the movie remains a profitable project.

So, let’s look at how Americana is a great opportunity for Sweeney and how it boosts her credibility prior to more amazing releases from her 2025 line-up!

Sydney Sweeney Is Still Winning with Americana’s Low Box-Office Numbers

Projections have put Americana’s domestic box-office figures around $1.5 million,...

ABC News Live Prime spotlights two generations of creators, pairing a legendary filmmaker with a rising star of indie rock. Academy Award-winning director Ron Howard joins Linsey Davis to give a behind-the-scenes look at his buzzed-about new film, Eden, a survival thriller that is already generating significant discussion for its intensity and creative choices. Then, […]

ABC News Live Prime: Ron Howard, d4vd...

Whenever a movie with a notable star gets a lower-end wide release in just over 1,000 theaters, and said title doesn’t post a big result, it’s easy to write that it’s a bomb.

Read, we once declared that Neon’s Matthew McConaughey Beach Bum was the star’s lowest opening for a wide release at $1.76M; that movie playing at 1,100 venues back in May 2019. At the time, Neon was upset, making a point that the movie was a niche play, and the only reason why the pic was playing slightly north of 1,000 locations is because the opportunity arose to book Beach Bum in more theaters. Why fault the distributor for going the extra mile in booking the title, and thus throw a pie in the film’s face?

This brings us to the Sydney Sweeney-starring, originally Bron-financed Tony Tost-written-directed western, Americana, which the...

Big personalities and bigger ambitions clash on the Galápagos isle of Floreana in Ron Howard’s Eden, resulting in a group of strangers being unable to live together in harmony. And it’s much the same case for the film, with none of its parts—not its characters, its ideas, or its accents—ever quite coalescing into a coherent whole.

Based on a true story, Eden begins on the disillusioned Dr. Friedrich Ritter (Jude Law) and his wife, Dore Strauch (Vanessa Kirby), who left civilization behind to start anew on Floreana in the early 1930s. She hoped the island air would help her multiple sclerosis while he sought to cure all of mankind’s ills by using their isolation to pen a radical new philosophy. They make for an odd and intense couple, the kind who trade Nietzsche quotes as a form of foreplay.

Heinz (Daniel Brühl) and Margret Wittmer...

Vanessa Kirby & Ana de Armas Lead Ron Howard’s Dark Survival Thriller Eden — Release Date, Cast, and Story Details (Photo Credit – Instagram)

Most people link “paradise” with clear skies, calm seas, and holiday drinks. In Ron Howard’s Eden, that vision turns dark, marked by betrayal, blood, and even steel dentures worn by Jude Law’s character. The survival thriller, reaching U.S. cinemas this August, is rooted in a real incident from 1929 that plays out stranger than fiction. Starring Vanessa Kirby, Ana de Armas, Sydney Sweeney, Jude Law, and Daniel Brühl, the film follows a community on the Galápagos Islands whose dream of escape collapses into one of the century’s most puzzling mysteries. Below is every scoop you should know before the flick lands in theatres.

Eden: Storyline Explained

At the heart of Eden lies a utopia that never really stood a chance. The year is 1929. Dr.

After launching its domestic distribution arm, financier Black Bear is working on a plan to release the critically acclaimed Matthew McConaughey crime drama The Rivals of Amziah King into theaters.

The pic drew a standing ovation and a 97% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes out of this year’s SXSW, but got no immediate buyers. Peg that to the wonky economics of the acquisition business nowadays and the rift between production cost and sales prices. There are several indie movies that have gone unsold from the agencies or have found a long road to distribution: Next weekend, Vertical is finally releasing Ron Howard’s period thriller Eden, which stars Ana de Armas, Jude Law, Sydney Sweeney and Vanessa Kirby, from last year’s TIFF

Rivals of Amziah King was screened at Berlin to buyers, but given its back country-set Americana storyline, it’s a hard sell overseas.

The pic is directed and...

Before Ron Howard became the acclaimed filmmaker behind Willow, Apollo 13, and A Beautiful Mind, he was best known as Richie Cunningham on Happy Days. While Howard was meant to be the star of the show, his clean-cut hero was soon eclipsed by Henry Winkler’s effortlessly cool Arthur “Fonzie” Fonzarelli, who quickly stole the spotlight and the audience’s hearts. In fact, the character became so popular that the producers were considering changing the title to Fonzie’s Happy Days, and they might have done it had Howard not threatened to leave.

“I never, ever challenged what they were doing creatively. It made perfect sense that you’d build this Fonzie character and maximize that,” Howard told Vulture. “But the optics of now being in a show called ‘Fonzie’s Happy Days, my ego wouldn’t allow for that. I wasn’t bluffing. I would’ve left. And my contract,...

It's not the best night for Vanessa Kirby (The Fantastic Four: First Steps). This may refer to the story of her new movie, Night Always Comes, but also indicates the fact that the movie has just joined a list that most actors prefer to look away from: the one with poorly reviewed movies. The Netflix thriller debuted with a lackluster 59% score on Rotten Tomatoes, which suggests that critics weren't quite taken with the story. The score might change if more reviews come in over the weekend, but for now the movie ranks among the lowest-rated projects that Kirby starred in.

It's sad, because the synopsis and trailer for Night Always Comes make it seem like a compelling story. Set over the course of one night, the movie centers around the desperate attempt of Lynette (Kirby) to come up with an obscene amount of money in 12 hours or less — all of...

A new crime thriller from Netflix has been well-received on Rotten Tomatoes. The streaming service, which is one of the biggest in the world, features a library of licensed movie and television titles, but they are best known for their original projects, which include massive hits such as Squid Game, Stranger Things, and the 2025 smash KPop Demon Hunters.

Because they produce releases in a wide variety of genres, there have been a number of major Netflix thrillers in the crime genre. While some have not been well-reviewed on Rotten Tomatoes, such as Pain Hustlers (23%) and Reptile (44%), others have been better-received, including The Irishman (95%), El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie (92%), and their newest outing.

Night Always Comes Has Debuted With A Fresh Rotten Tomatoes Score

Netflix's Night Always Comes has won over critics so far. The new Netflix movie is a crime thriller directed by Benjamin Caron and based on the...

Eden movie character posters have been unveiled!

The new individual posters feature stars Sydney Sweeney, Ana de Armas, Jude Law, Vanessa Kirby and Daniel Bruhl.

Directed by Ron Howard, the upcoming movie “unravels the shocking true story of a group of disillusioned outsiders who abandon modern society in search of a new beginning. Settling on a remote, uninhabited island, their utopian dream quickly unravels as they discover that the greatest threat isn’t the brutal climate or deadly wildlife, but each other. What follows is a chilling descent into chaos where tensions spiral, desperation takes hold, and a twisted power struggle leads to betrayal, violence, and the deaths of half the colony.”

If you missed it, check out the trailer here!

Eden is set to hit theaters on August 22nd.

Browse through the gallery to see the new character posters for Eden…...

British Boost

BAFTA has unveiled key changes for the 2026 film awards, including strengthened eligibility criteria for Outstanding British Film and refined documentary voting procedures.

The Outstanding British Film category now requires candidates to reach a minimum of 60% of available points, with either the director or writer being British to qualify. Films that reach the threshold without British directors or writers will be considered on appeal.

For documentaries, BAFTA has refined the opt-in chapter profile to ensure round one voting is conducted by members with specific documentary/non-fiction experience, while the full voting membership will select the winner.

In another significant change, full voting members will decide winners of the British Short Film and British Short Animation categories for the first time, raising the profile of these works.

The 79th awards ceremony will take place Feb. 22, 2026, with longlists announced Jan. 9 and nominations Jan. 27. Entries opened August 14.

Anna Higgs, BAFTA film committee chair,...

Sydney Sweeney’s Americana Loses Perfect Rotten Tomatoes Score Before Theatrical Debut ( Photo Credit – Instagram )

Americana brings together a mix of characters in a small South Dakota town whose lives collide over a valuable ghost shirt, leading to tension and violence. The film, written and directed by Tony Tost, is known as the creator of Damnation and showrunner for Poker Face season 2.

The crime thriller stars Sydney Sweeney as its main protagonist alongside actors like Paul Walter Hauser, Halsey, Eric Dane, Zahn McClarnon, Simon Rex, Harriet Sansom Harris, and more.

Americana’s Rotten Tomatoes Score: From Perfect Score to 77 Percent

The film first premiered at South by Southwest in March 2023 with a perfect Rotten Tomatoes score based on eight reviews. However, that score has since shifted to 79% with fourteen reviews ahead of its August 15 theatrical release.

Trending New James Bond Update: This 37-Year-Old Actor Just Entered The Race To Be...

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Lw Entertainment is partnering with Justin Leach, the co-executive producer on the Star Wars: Visions anthology, for an anime adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera stage musical. Leach’s Qubic Pictures and Webber’s The Really Useful Group (now Lw Entertainment) announced the news and the partnership on their official website. They plan on combining the Japanese anime industry with Musical theatre, which will certainly make history.

The anime series is part of a new wave of film and television projects based on The Phantom of the Opera and other Andrew Lloyd Webber works. The Phantom of the Opera is one of the most popular musicals in the world, with the record for the longest-running show in Broadway history. While not much has been revealed about the anime adaptation, the project itself holds incredible importance and thus is destined to become a landmark addition to Webber’s legacy.

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Group today announced a name-change – as expected it’s now Lw Entertainment – and a line-up of projects, confirming a Spring 2026 Broadway transfer of the Off Broadway hit Cats reimagining Cats: The Jellicle Ball.

While that news isn’t surprising – a Broadway Jellicle Ball has been all but guaranteed since the revitalized musical took New York by storm last year in its Off Broadway incarnation – today’s lengthy announcement includes a deep-buried reference to Superstar, which drew raves earlier this month when the three-night, sold-out concert version starring Cynthia Erivo played L.A.’s Hollywood Bowl.

“With rave reviews across the board, Jesus Christ Superstar, has just played a sell-out, three-night concert for over 50,000 people at the Hollywood Bowl, starring Cynthia Erivo, the first female Jesus, and Adam Lambert as Judas,” the press release states. “Described by Playbill as ‘as close to a religious experience as...

Sydney Sweeney's ascent began in earnest in 2018, when she captured audiences' attention in the nostalgic teen dramedy Everything Sucks!, delivered a haunting turn in Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale, and embodied a troubled young woman in HBO's Sharp Objects. Soon after, she made her feature film debut in Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, portraying a member of the infamous Manson family.

Her career surged to greater heights with two acclaimed HBO shows – the raw, emotionally charged Euphoria and the satirical social drama The White Lotus season 1 – earning Emmy nominations for each. In 2023, Sweeney demonstrated remarkable versatility, portraying the titular whistleblower in the tense HBO film Reality while also showcasing her comedic charm in the blockbuster rom-com Anyone But You.

By 2024, Sweeney had expanded her range even further, stepping into both the superhero genre with Madame Web and psychological horror with Immaculate. Sweeney's upcoming slate remains packed,...

Sydney Sweeney is one of the most popular actors right now. Whether it's the anticipation for Euphoria Season 3, the newly released Echo Valley with Ridley Scott as a producer, or her viral American Eagle ad campaign, she is constantly in the headlines.

Sweeney's latest project, Americana, is set to premiere in theaters on Aug. 15. The movie's release had been long awaited, as the crime thriller had its world premiere at the South by Southwest Festival in 2023. Ahead of its official release,Americana has debuted with an encouraging 82% approval score from the critics on Rotten Tomatoes.

Image Credit: LionsGate.

The modern-day Western follows a series of people from a town in South Dakota fighting over an expensive artifact. The official synopsis for Americana details, "After the artifact falls onto the black market, a shy waitress with big dreams teams up with a lovelorn military veteran to gain possession of it,...

“Eden”, the new ugly thriller with beautiful people, stars Ana de Armas, Vanessa Kirby and Sydney Sweeney, with music by Hans Zimmer, releasing August 22, 2025 in theaters:

“…the film is loosely based on the true story of European settlers arriving at ‘Floreana Island’, in the Galápagos Islands, Ecuador…

“…before things go ‘awry’ with theft and deception…

‘…and they all wind up wanting to kill each other…”

Click the images to enlarge…...

This week's episode of the Empire Podcast is a double-guest delight for your listening delectation. First up, Chris Hewitt hops onto Zoom to have a lovely natter with Guy Pearce, who shows off his musical prowess, reveals the one accent that eludes him, and tells us all about his brilliant new Australian prison drama Inside [20:12 — 37:51 approx.] Then, our Deputy Online Editor and resident horror fanboy Ben Travis sits down for a lovely spoiler-free chat with Weapons star — and secret weapon of the MCU — Benedict Wong. [1:02:05 — 1:17:58 approx.]

Back in the pod booth, Helen O'Hara slip into the host's chair in Chris' absence, and use her endless reservoir of patience to corral James Dyer, Alex Godfrey and Ben Travis in a discussion of the best second movies by notable directors. That was inspired by the arrival of Weapons, the second film from Zach Cregger, and in the reviews section our quartet lose their minds over that,...

A new survival thriller movie directed by Ron Howard and starring Vanessa Kirby and Sydney Sweeney has just dropped a new trailer. Eden hits theaters later this month.

Vertical shared the new trailer for Eden on YouTube, describing the film as the 'shocking true story of a group of outsiders who settle on a remote island only to discover their greatest threat isn't the brutal climate or deadly wildlife, but each other.' In addition to Kirby and Sweeney, the film also stars Jude Law, Ana de Armas, and Daniel Brühl. It premiered last year at the Toronto International Film Festival and is eyeing a U.S. theatrical release on Aug. 22, 2025.

Based on the true story of European settlers arriving at Floreana Island in Ecuador, Eden chronicles the journey of Dr. Friedrich Ritter (Law) and his wife Dora Strauch (Kirby) as they flee their homeland of Germany in 1929. They venture...

Ron Howard’s newest film Eden is making waves again with the release of its intense new trailer. The survival thriller, which features a star-studded cast including Ana de Armas, Sydney Sweeney, Vanessa Kirby, and Jude Law, is set to hit U.S. theaters on August 22. The movie is inspired by a true story and explores what happens when survival, ego, and ambition clash in one of the world’s most remote locations.

The film is based on a real series of events that took place on Floreana Island, part of the Galápagos Islands in Ecuador. In 1929, a German couple, Dr. Friedrich Ritter and his partner Dora Strauch, leave behind modern society hoping to live in peace and solitude. They want a fresh start, to write his philosophical ideas and she to heal from multiple sclerosis. But their quiet life doesn’t last long.

Soon, other settlers arrive. Heinz and...

A new survival thriller called Eden is set to hit theaters this year, and it’s already gaining attention. Directed by Ron Howard and written by Noah Pink, the movie tells the true story of European settlers on Floreana Island, part of Ecuador’s Galápagos Islands. The film stars Jude Law, Ana de Armas, Vanessa Kirby, Sydney Sweeney, and Daniel Brühl, among others.

The story begins in 1929, when Dr. Friedrich Ritter and his wife Dora leave Germany, rejecting what they see as the shallow values of their society. They hope to find peace on Floreana Island. Friedrich wants to write his manifesto, and Dora tries to heal from multiple sclerosis through meditation. But their peaceful life is quickly interrupted.

Soon, Margret and Heinz Wittmer arrive. They are hardworking settlers who try to make a life on the island. Then comes Eloise Bosquet de Wagner Wehrhorn, a self-proclaimed Baroness.

She arrives with two lovers,...

Picture the scene: you've just arrived on a remote, uninhabited, island, and you've found yourself shacked up with Sydney Sweeney, Jude Law, Vanessa Kirby, Daniel Brühl, and All Quiet On The Western Front star Felix Kammerer. Sounds like paradise, right? Well, not if you're Ana de Armas and you find yourself playing an Austrian Baroness trapped in the savage world of Thirteen Lives filmmaker Ron Howard's upcoming survival thriller Eden, it ain't. Based on the true story of Floreana, an island in the Galapagos that played host to a band of exiles who fled Europe in the early 20th century, Eden — if the tense first trailer's anything to go by — sees Lord Of The Flies and says "Hold my conch." Check it out below;

Sun. Sea. Sex. Suspect European accents. Devastatingly beautiful and undeniably portentous landscapes serving as a backdrop to a powder-keg of violent tension. This sure ain't no Swiss Family Robinson,...

“Eden” is an ugly thriller with beautiful people, including Ana de Armas, Vanessa Kirby and Sydney Sweeney, with music by Hans Zimmer, releasing August 22, 2025 in theaters:

“…the film is loosely based on the true story of European settlers arriving at ‘Floreana Island’, in the Galápagos Islands, Ecuador…

“…before things go ‘awry’ with theft and deception and they all wind up wanting to kill each other…”

Click the images to enlarge…...

"We came here for isolation, now we're being crowded." Vertical has finally debuted an official trailer for the survival thriller movie Eden, directed by Ron Howard. This premiered last year at the 2024 Toronto Film Festival (to many bad reviews) and has already opened in many other countries earlier this year. Ron Howard tells the harrowing & upsetting true story of a group of people in the 1930s living on the Galapagos island entirely on their own with nothing else. "Life here is gruesome, frustrating. Failure is inevitable." The story follows a handful of people fueled by a profound desire for change; turning their back to society they leave everything behind and set their futures on the harsh landscape of the Galapagos. Based on historical events, this scintillating thriller stars Jude Law and Vanessa Kirby as high-minded Europeans seeking a new life on a previously uninhabited island in the Galápagos archipelago. They...

Vertical has released the official trailer and poster for Ron Howard’s Eden movie, which is set to open in theaters on August 22, 2025. The film has been rated R by the Motion Picture Association (MPA) for some strong violence, sexual content, graphic nudity, and language.

From Academy Award–winning director Ron Howard, the survival thriller unravels the shocking true story of a group of disillusioned outsiders who abandon modern society in search of a new beginning.

Settling on a remote, uninhabited island, their utopian dream quickly unravels as they discover that the greatest threat isn’t the brutal climate or deadly wildlife, but each other. What follows is a chilling descent into chaos where tensions spiral, desperation takes hold, and a twisted power struggle leads to betrayal, violence, and the deaths of half the colony.

“Thanks to our partners at AGC Studios, Vertical, and our amazing team at Imagine Entertainment,...

After years in development, the Ron Howard-directed survival thriller Edenis nearing its theatrical debut — and now it has a new trailer to entice audiences with fresh official glimpses of a star-studded cast trying to build a new life in the untamed wilderness of the Galápagos Islands.

Howard probably isn't the first filmmaker you think of when dreaming up directors for a pulse-pounding story of survival, but when he stepped behind the camera for Eden, he certainly had no shortage of talent to work with: The film's ensemble cast is led by Ana de Armas, Daniel Brühl, Vanessa Kirby, Jude Law, and Sydney Sweeney, all working from a screenplay by Tetris writer Noah Pink. But even all that star power wasn't enough to keep the production from suffering a series of delays, primarily due to the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike, which hit a matter of months after Howard boarded the project in...

Ana de Armas, Sydney Sweeney, and Vanessa Kirby face their biggest threat yet in a new trailer for Eden. Directed by Ron Howard, a two-time Oscar-winner for A Beautiful Mind, the upcoming survival thriller is based on the true story of a group of disillusioned outsiders who relocate to a remote island and quickly realize that their greatest threat isn't nature, but each other.

Its star-studded cast includes two-time Oscar nominee Jude Law, Oscar nominee Ana de Armas (Blonde), Oscar nominee Vanessa Kirby (Pieces of a Woman), two-time Emmy nominee Sydney Sweeney, Daniel Brühl, Felix Kammerer, Toby Wallace, Richard Roxburgh, and Jonathan Tittel.

Now, Vertical has released an official full-length trailer for Eden. It begins in 1929 as Dr. Friedrich Ritter (Jude Law) and his wife Dora Strauch (Vanessa Kirby) leave Germany, disillusioned with modern civilization and in pursuit of a fresh start. They settle on the remote and uninhabited island...

The new trailer for the star-studded movie Eden has arrived.

The Ron Howard-directed feature was filmed back in 2023 in Australia. Sydney Sweeney, Ana de Armas, Jude Law, Vanessa Kirby and Daniel Bruhl all star!

Keep reading to find out more…

Watch the new trailer for the film below.

Here’s a synopsis: 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.

Written by Noah Pink, Eden is slated to hit theaters on August 22! Be sure to catch it when it hits theaters.

Check out stills from the movie in the gallery…...

One month after the teaser for Ron Howard’s Eden comes the full trailer, showing off more of the latest survival movie from the renowned director. As with his previous film, 2022’s Thirteen Lives, Howard explores a true story, this time looking at the settlement of the Floreana Island in the Galápagos Islands.

Here is the plot of the movie, as per Vertical: “Eden unravels the shocking true story of a group of disillusioned outsiders who abandon modern society in search of a new beginning. Settling on a remote, uninhabited island, their utopian dream quickly unravels as they discover that the greatest threat isn’t the brutal climate or deadly wildlife, but each other. What follows is a chilling descent into chaos where tensions spiral, desperation takes hold, and a twisted power struggle leads to betrayal, violence, and the deaths of half the colony.” In addition to the aforementioned cast,...

After a long wait, Ron Howard's historical thriller Edenis finally coming to theaters. In the new trailer for the film, a star-studded cast, including Jude Law, Sydney Sweeney, and Vanessa Kirby brave the elements in a hostile new world. Eden will be released on August 22.

What Is 'Eden' About?

Eden is based on the real-life experiences of Dr. Friedrich Ritter (Law) and his wife Dora Strauch (Kirby), a German couple who believe modern society is undermining man's true nature. They set out for the uninhabited island Floreana, part of the South American Galápagos Islands, and are joined by an eccentric crew of settlers. They include the hard-working couple Heniz and Margret Whitmer (Daniel Brühl and Sweeney), who fit in well, and Baroness Eloise Bosquet de Wagner Wehrhorn (Ana de Armas), who does not, given that she arrives with a two lovers and a full wardrobe, and plans...

Ron Howard’s “Eden” is a paradise packed with the buzziest 2025 stars. Sydney Sweeney has a supporting role in the ensemble that includes “Night Always Comes” and “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” actress Vanessa Kirby and Jude Law, whose “Black Rabbit” series will debut later this year. “Ballerina” star Ana de Armas and Daniel Brühl are also in the survival thriller.

“Eden” captures the “shocking true story” (per the film’s official logline) of a group of disillusioned outsiders who left civilization to start their own society on a remote, uninhabited island.

The synopsis reads: “From Academy Award–winning director Ron Howard, ‘Eden’ unravels the shocking true story of a group of disillusioned outsiders who abandon modern society in search of a new beginning. Settling on a remote, uninhabited island, their utopian dream quickly unravels as they discover that the greatest threat isn’t the brutal climate or deadly wildlife,...

American Eagle has responded to the backlash surrounding its viral Sydney Sweeney campaign, which has been the subject of an extended online discourse that has seen everyone from the White House to Stephen Colbert weighing in with takes.

“Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans is and always was about the jeans. Her jeans. Her story. We’ll continue to celebrate how everyone wears their Ae jeans with confidence, their way. Great jeans look good on everyone,” Ae posted on Instagram Friday.

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A post shared by American Eagle (@americaneagle)

At the center of the controversy has been a clip that finds Sweeney saying, “Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality and even eye color. My jeans are blue.” The line inspired a wild debate with countless online critics weighing in about whether it’s just a harmless yet fun play on words,...

Doja Cat has entered the chat.

The performer posted a TikTok on Monday night mocking Sydney Sweeney’s delivery of her dialogue in a new jeans ad for American Eagle, a campaign that has inspired a swirl of online controversy.

“Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality and even eye color. My jeans are blue,” the rapper recites in the now viral clip that features Doja Cat using an exaggerated backwoods-style accent. It has been viewed nearly 10 million times as of press time.

The clip gives more oxygen to online discourse about the campaign, which has largely found a home on TikTok where it has hosted countless creators weighing in about whether it’s just a harmless yet fun play on words, “great genes” versus “great jeans,” or if the ad has some secret nefarious meaning.

Because Sweeney has blonde hair and blue eyes,...

Cinema United and the Cinema Foundation are teaming up to bring two-for-one concessions and additional discounts to movie theaters around the country on Friday, Aug. 22. It is part of an inaugural event called “Date Night @ The Movies,” sponsored by Fandango.

On that Friday, thousands of participating theaters will offer special two-for-one deals on popcorn, candy, drinks and even movie promotions. The event is meant to get people back into the theaters, ideally going as couples or duos. Mike Bowers, chair of the Cinema Foundation explains, “‘Date Night @ the Movies’ is a celebration of the long-lasting memories we create and share at the cinema. This one-night only event is all about enjoying the big screen with someone special, whether it’s your partner, best friend, new friend, family member or movie-loving plus one.”

“Date Night @ The Movies” comes on the heels of other promotional “@ The Movies” campaigns put on by Cinema United and the Cinema Foundation.

The first day of San Diego Comic-Con is winding down, but Paul Feig has one big surprise left up his sleeve. At Collider's Directors on Directing panel hosted by Steve Weintraub and also featuring Rob Reiner, the acclaimed director debuted the first footage from his upcoming novel adaptation, The Housemaid, starring Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried. It's a quick introductory scene that offers a tantalizing and slightly sinister taste of the world the Euphoria star is about to enter as she applies to work for a wealthy couple with plenty of skeletons in their closets. What's meant to be a change of scenery is about to become something much more complicated and dangerous when the film arrives on December 25.

In the footage, attendees at the panel were introduced to Sweeney's prospective housemaid, Millie, and Seyfried's Nina, as the latter conducts an interview with the former about potentially taking care of her home.

Universal Pictures is celebrating the 30th anniversary of Apollo 13, Ron Howard and Brian Grazer’s Academy Award–winning masterpiece and one of the most gripping true stories ever brought to screen. On September 19, the film, produced by Grazer and Howard’s Imagine Entertainment, returns to theaters nationwide, presented exclusively in IMAX from September 19-25 in its full-length theatrical version for the first time.

This special anniversary release offers audiences a chance to revisit the landmark drama about the most heart-stopping rescue mission in the history of America’s space program, presented in the most immersive format yet.

Released on June 30, 1995, Apollo 13 recounts the real-life events of April 1970, when an oxygen tank explosion aboard NASA’s third planned mission to the Moon transformed the flight into a harrowing battle for survival.

With their spacecraft losing power and life support, astronauts Jim Lovell (Academy Award winner Tom Hanks), Jack Swigert...

Elsa Ramo isn’t easily spooked. Through a combination of scrappiness, savvy and determination, she’s grown her eponymous Los Angeles-based law firm Ramo from two employees to more than 50 over the course of the last 20 years, working on deals encompassing everything from securing underlying IP rights to financing and distribution to AI best practices. Along the way, it’s attracted a long list of high-profile clients, from top independent studios and financiers (Bondit Media Capital) to celebrity production companies.

But something inside Ramo snapped when her Brentwood neighborhood received an evacuation order during the Palisades Fire in January. Wracked with stress about the safety of herself, her husband and their two young children, then ages 7 and 10, and the fate of their home, she decided to pull out of the deal for the firm’s new office space, the one she’d spent two years searching to find. It was...

Following her acclaimed features I’ll Show You Mine, Lucky Them, Eden, and Sadie, filmmaker Megan Griffiths returned this year with the Eliza Flug-scripted Year of the Fox. Led by Sarah Jeffery, Jane Adams, Jake Weber, Lexi Simonsen, and Balthazar Getty, the drama follows a teenager navigating privilege and predation in 1990s Aspen’s elite party scene amidst her adoptive parents’ bitter divorce. Tying directly to our current moment, the film is drawn from Flug’s own upbringing in Aspen wherein she crossed paths with the likes of Jeffrey Epstein, who served as the inspiration for the character Balthazar Getty plays.

As Year of the Fox plays in the writer-director’s hometown of Seattle, along with Portland, it’ll open in Los Angeles at Laemmle NoHo on August 1 from Monument Releasing, followed by a nationwide digital release on August 19. Ahead of the roll-out, we’re pleased to exclusively debut the trailer and poster,...

Vanessa Kirby may be the latest MCU superhero with “Fantastic Four,” but the acclaimed Academy Award-nominated star is returning to her Netflix roots for the highly-anticipated thriller “Night Always Comes.” Kirby reunites with her “The Crown” director Ben Caron for the adaptation of Willy Vlautin’s bestselling novel. Kirby stars as Lynette, a woman who is ready to risk anything to save her family home.

Jennifer Jason Leigh, Stephan James, Julia Fox, Eli Roth, Randall Park, Michael Kelly, and “The Peanut Butter Falcon” breakout actor Zack Gottsagen also star.

The logline reads: “Risking everything to secure a future for herself and her brother, a woman sets out on a dangerous odyssey — confronting her own dark past over one propulsive night.” The film is described as being about a “desperate and dangerous high-stakes” that “powerfully illustrates the incredible strength and unwavering determination of one woman pushing against a system that often feels stacked against her.

Admit it or not, the ‘based on true stories’ tagline lends a strange credibility to films about extraordinary circumstances. It brings an unexpected levity to fiction that might otherwise feel derivative. Take Eden, for instance. Without the bizarre real-life history of a handful of European settlers arriving on Floreana Island in the Galápagos, the film might have played like a strait-laced, sun-drenched black comedy—Cast Away meets a gloomier take on the trope of friendly neighbors turned feral. Everyone here carries a film inside their head: a self-declared Baroness reimagines herself as an imperialist fantasy and turns the island into her private psycho-thriller. Ritter believes he’s orchestrating a philosophical coup through sheer intellectual force, only to spiral into a self-parodic wreck. The film, however, aligns with the quietly enduring Margaret, who bears witness to the madness, tethered to the primal logic of survival.

But the screenplay, written by Noah Pink,...

Ne Zha 2 has now gotten a United States distributor for theatrical release. The Chinese animated sequel is directed by Yu Yang and tells a fantasy epic story about the souls Ne Zha and Aobing, who have to find new life after a catastrophe occurs.

The film originally got a wide release in China, where it became the country's highest-grossing film of all time. While some sources dispute the exact grossing, Ne Zha 2 is reported to have made up to $2.2 billion. This makes it not only China's biggest winner but the highest-grossing animated film of all time.

Per The Hollywood Reporter, Ne Zha 2 is now getting an official United States release. The film will be distributed by the independent film group A24. They will collaborate with Cmc Pictures to bring an English-language dubbed version. This English-language version will see Michelle Yeoh lead the voice cast.

The film is...

While promoting her fun Baskin-Robbins commercial, Sweeney opened up in an interview about how the idea came together and how much she loved filming it. She said the team had this playful idea of her always being around or trying to sneak in, and it worked perfectly with her love of ice cream. “They made it playful. I was happy about that because it really shows my love for Baskin-Robbins,” she said.

Of course, with all that ice cream on set, she couldn’t resist digging in. “The problem is I kept eating all the ones they gave me. I’d half-eat one, and I’d half-eat the next one because they kept handing me really nice new cones. I’m like, ‘Well, I got to eat it.’ It was definitely one of the happiest moments of my life.”

The commercial gave off a Barbie vibe, full of pink and playfulness,...