Ron Howard’s ‘Origin of Species’ Adds Vanessa Kirby and Sydney Sweeney

Deadline has originally reported that Ron Howard’s “Origin of Species” had lost Daisy Edgar-Jones due a scheduling conflict with the upcoming “Twisters,” which still still needs to be shot and completed after the strike ends.

Today, it’s being reported that Sydney Sweeney and Vanessa Kirby have been added to a cast that already includes Ana De Armas, Jude Law, Alicia Vikander and Daniel Brühl. This is turning into one of best-cast movies for 2024.

Billed as a “survival thriller,” the film has also been retitled “Eden” (not to be confused with Mia Hansen-Love’s movie). Production is supposed take place next month in Queensland, Australia. The script comes to us from Noah Pink (Tetris).

Based on two different accounts of the same true story, the film is being described as “a darkly comic tale of murder and survival, set around a group of eclectic characters who abandon civilization for the Galapagos. They are all searching for the answer to that ever-pressing question that plagues us all: what is the meaning of life.”

Oscar winner Howard is coming off the Amazon Thai cave rescue thriller “Thirteen Lives”. That one garnered strong reviews, but was released in August — it could have been an Oscar-bait contender had Amazon just waited for release it in the fall.

Howard’s had quite the career as a filmmaker. Whod’a thunk it? Opie from “Happy Days” is an Oscar winner. Howard’s most acclaimed films are “Rush,” “Frost/Nixon,” “Apollo 13,” “Cinderella Man” and “A Beautiful Mind.”

Then again, he’s had just as many, if not more, duds in his 40 year career — the Howard-directed films that have been panned by critics are aplenty: “Hillbilly Elegy,” “Solo,” “Inferno,” “The Dilemma,” “Angels & Demons,” “The DaVinci Code,” “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” “EdTV,” “Far and Away,” “In the Heart of the Sea” …

When it comes to Howard, you just never know what you’re going to get.