Ron Howard’s ‘steamy and violent’ thriller Eden has at last landed US distribution, although no news yet on when we get it in the UK.
Ron Howard’s Eden has had us patiently waiting for another update regarding its release. It premiered last Autumn at the Toronto International Film Festival and is said to be a darker look at human behaviour. It also features an appealing (and marketable) leading trio in the form of Sydney Sweeney, Jude Law and Ana de Armas.
Yet in the half a year following that premiere, the film simply couldn’t get picked up for purchase. The cost is said to be the problem, with the report claiming that its price tag has it sitting somewhere between $30m-50m. When you factor in marketing the project effectively as well, it seems that Eden is proving to be too much of a gamble for interested parties, given that it’s said to definitely be aimed at a grown-up audience. Make of that what you will.
After the film’s premiere, Vulture, said that Eden was ‘proof that Howard had lost his mind.’ Again, make of that what you will.
The interesting thing here is that the quality of the film itself is reportedly not the problem. Feedback emerging out of TIFF was on the mixed to positive side, so this isn’t set to be a total duffer. The problem seems to be the balance between price tag and intended audience, with most potential buyers worried that the film won’t attract a large enough number of people to turn a profit.
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According to its official synopsis, Eden 'follows a group of people in the 1940s who are fuelled by a profound desire for change; in order to turn their back to society they leave everything behind and set their futures on the harsh landscape of the Galapagos.’
Of course, things get darker, it all begins to go downhill, and that all sounds like terrific cinema to us.
Happily, according to Deadline, Eden has been acquired in a US rights deal by Vertical, with the distributor plotting an August 22 nationwide theatrical release. While that late summer release doesn’t suggest that Vertical thinks it will do gangbusters at the box office, we’re just glad Howard’s film is set to get a wide theatrical release. We’ll keep our eyes open for details of a UK release and hopefully will have something to share with you soon.
