EXCLUSIVE: We told you about Ron Howard’s survival thriller Origin of Species last fall and the project now has a killer cast with Oscar nominee Ana De Armas (No Time To Die), Oscar nominee Jude Law (Sherlock Holmes) and Golden Globe nominee Daniel Brühl (All Quiet On The Western Front) attached and Oscar winner Alicia Vikander (Tomb Raider) in talks to join.
Howard’s Imagine Entertainment are behind the buzz project with CAA Media Finance and Stuart Ford’s AGC Studios, the latter which is newly aboard to finance and will be selling at the upcoming Cannes market.
Shoot is being lined up for Q4, 2023, in Queensland, Australia. Script comes from Noah Pink (Tetris).
Based on two different accounts of the same true story, the film is being described as an “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.”
This is the latest big package to hit the Cannes market, which despite the strike is looking like a trove of opportunity for buyers. Those with scripts further along — and the completed films in the festival —could be even more desirable with holes opening up in schedules due to the strike delaying some projects.