Ana De Armas And Sydney Sweeney's 2025 Thriller Will Stream On Netflix Very Soon

Ana de Armas and Sydney Sweeney are currently two of the most sought-after actors in Hollywood. If you're looking for a studio greenlight or production financing, getting just one of these performers will trigger some serious interest. Get them both, and the project, unless it's a shot-for-shot remake of Rob Reiner's "North," is almost certainly a go.

The film that landed these two popular stars is called "Eden," and it has already come and bombed in theaters. It had major marquee names aside from de Armas and Sweeney (who's had a bad box office run of late). Jude Law, Vanessa Kirby, and Daniel Brühl are in it. What's more, it was directed by Ron Howard and boasted a score from Hans Zimmer. Budgeted at $55 million, Australian tax credits brought that price down to $35 million. Still, this is a big, prestige-y movie, one that debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival last September. And I bet a lot of you are just now learning it exists.

How did a film of this magnitude wind up being a blip on the pop cultural radar? This, sadly, is what happens when an A-list filmmaker departs wildly from his good-hearted comfort zone and delivers a downbeat "Lord of the Flies" riff that earns mixed reviews. De Armas, Sweeney, and the rest of the cast may be marvelous performers, but this is the kind of movie that, nowadays, will either become a streaming hit or get memory-holed like so much "EDtv."

Written by Noah Pink, "Eden" is about a group of European settlers who, post-World War I, sought meaning and, perhaps, utopia on the Galapagos isle of Floreana. This Eastern Pacific locale has become the home to Dr. Friedrich Ritter (Law) and Dore Strauch (Kirby), the latter of whom is slugging away at a manifesto that, once completed, will guide humanity toward peace and enlightenment. They're joined on the isle by Heinz and Margret Wittmer (Brühl and Sweeney), who've bought into Ritter's vision, but soon discover that they're a long way from paradise. 

Tensions ramp up with the arrival of Eloise Bosquet de Wagner Wehrhorn (de Armas), who brings along her two male lovers/acolytes. She's aiming to build a resort in the Galapagos, which runs counter to everything Ritter and, most importantly, the Wittmers values. Ultimately, alliances are formed, which turns the film into a "Survivor"-esque free-for-all that can't be reined in by CBS producers. There will be blood, betrayal, and murder. And this may be down your alley!

"Eden" will begin streaming on Netflix on December 23, just in time for Christmas, at which point it just might find a cult following. Its awards prospects died at TIFF, but Howard has some late-bloomer classics in his oeuvre (most notably the sublime "The Paper"); maybe time will be kind to "Eden." Or maybe it's headed the way of "EDtv."