Be it with his Dan Brown films (“The Da Vinci Code”, “Illuminati”, “Inferno”), the Oscar-winning biopic “A Beautiful Mind”, the Formula 1 spectacle “Rush – Everything for Victory”, the colorful Christmas comedy “The Grinch” or the space western “Solo: A Star Wars Story”: Ron Howard is a director who can point to a large number of top films in his oeuvre. It is therefore not surprising that the filmmaker can choose the well-known actors with whom he would like to work.
With “Origin Of The Species,” Ron Howard has a new project underway – and the cast, which has already been confirmed, is absolutely top notch. In addition to Ana de Armas (“James Bond 007 – No Time to Die”), Jude Law (“Peter Pan and Wendy”) and Alicia Vikander (“The Light Between Oceans”) is also Daniel Brühl (“Nothing New in the West” ) with the party. Brühl and Howard previously worked together on Rush. Brühl was highly praised by the critics for his portrayal of Niki Lauda there.
This is “Origin of the Species”
The title “Origin Of The Species” sounds familiar to you? This is probably because the main work of the British naturalist Charles Darwin also bears this exact title (in German: “On the Origin of Species”). The theory of evolution that Darwin deals with in his work is about the so-called right of the fittest. This means that those individuals that best adapt to their external conditions always survive.
This is exactly what Ron Howard will probably refer to in his “Origin Of The Species” based on a true story. Described as a survival thriller, the film revolves around his group of people who decide to turn their backs on civilization to go to the Galapagos Islands. Here they look for the answer that concerns everyone equally: what is the meaning of life?
The Galapagos Affair
Although it is not explicitly mentioned in the official announcement, the known facts make it clear that Ron Howard will film a shocking event here, which has gone down in history as “The Galápagos Affair”. Several people who left Germany settled on an uninhabited small island in the late 1920s to start a new life. But the very different approaches to life led to conflict. In the end, three people died, three others disappeared without a trace. The exact circumstances have never been clarified, …
…but are always part of cinematic reassessments (e.g. “The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came To Eden” with Cate Blanchett and Diane Kruger) and are also featured in true crime books or podcasts. The title of Howard’s film, which refers to Charles Darwin, also speaks for this: about 100 years before the events, the then young naturalist himself visited the island on his world tour and subsequently described it in a travelogue. This text inspired at least some of the emigrants to make their new home here.
The script for the movie was written by Noah Pink (“Tetris”). Filming is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2023. Filming will take place in Queensland, Australia. How picturesque the landscape is there was proven by “Ticket to Paradise” with George Clooney and Julia Roberts 2022, which was also filmed there.