Deadline is reporting that Ron Howard will direct the survival thriller “Origin of Species.” The cast will include Ana De Armas, Jude Law, Alicia Vikander and Daniel Brühl.
Production is set to take place this fall in Queensland, Australia. The script comes 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.