This morning, the Toronto International Film Festival added another round of world premieres to its upcoming slate. Some of the titles announced include John Crowley’s “We Live in Time” and Sophie Deraspe’s “Shepherds.”
However, the biggie is Ron Howard’s “Eden,” which Screen had originally tipped to premiere on the Lido. That clearly isn’t happening anymore. I’d slightly tamper my expectations for this one as it is not headed to either Venice or Telluride.
The “Eden” cast is pure eye candy, including Sydney Sweeney, Vanessa Kirby, Ana De Armas, Jude Law, and Daniel Brühl. Billed as a “survival thriller,” and 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 primo Oscar-bait had Amazon just waited to 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,” “Far and Away,” “In the Heart of the Sea” …
When it comes to Howard, you just never know what you’re going to get.