The latest of the 2025 movie releases heading to theaters this weekend as the summer season dies down is director Ron Howard’s Eden. It’s a thriller about a group of people who moved to the Galapagos in between World War I and World War II to flee society. When CinemaBlend spoke to the legendary filmmaker and star Jude Law, they talked with us about the roses and thorns of shooting completely outdoors in Australia.
Ron Howard Recalls ‘Scary Movie’ Moment On The Set Of Eden
While Ron Howard and the star-studded cast of Eden, including Sydney Sweeney, Ana de Armas and Vanessa Kirby, could enjoy the luxuries of modern life every night thanks to a 45-minute drive back to the Gold Coast in a “perfectly reasonable apartment”, per Howard, they were absolutely exposed to the elements on the shoot. As the director shared:
There are poisonous snakes that come in and take over. We had snake wranglers who would come an hour and a half before the production to go and extract the snakes and transport them to a safe place where they wouldn’t hurt anyone, and they wouldn’t hurt themselves. And, also spiders.
In Eden, Jude Law and Vanessa Kirby play the real-life husband and wife who decide to leave Germany to live isolated in the Galapagos. Law’s portrayal of Dr. Ritter adapts the doctor’s life, which included him removing all his teeth and wearing metal dentures in order to avoid infection in the wilderness. Sweeney plays Margret Wittmer, another German settler of the Galapagos who wrote about her experiences in the 1961 book Floreana. As Howard continued in our interview about filming Eden:
I mean, literally we had a poisonous spider that dropped down – it was like a scary movie – it dropped down on Sydney Sweeney at one point in the middle of the shot. She had no idea. We cut and somebody went over, scurried over there and caught the spider, took this carefully, took the spider outside. So, it was pretty wild.
As the director detailed to us, Eden really went into the wilderness to tell the story of the Ritters and the Wittmers. Howard recalled that while shooting a scene with Sweeney, who previously filmed in Australia for Anyone But You and recently did a method dressing moment to promote the film, a poisonous spider made a surprise appearance in a shot they were rolling cameras, and they had to pause filming to set it free.
But spiders weren’t the only dangerous creatures on set. Production also had to make sure all the poisonous snakes in the region were cleared before each day started to avoid any incidents. While it’s not technically one of the upcoming horror movies coming out, it sounds like it felt like that on set for a moment.
On The Other Hand, Jude Law Had To Be Told ‘No’ For Loving The Outdoor Set So Much
While one might think Hollywood stars wouldn’t necessarily be prepared for the conditions in Eden, it sounds like Jude Law was having an absolute ball being one with nature. As Ron Howard continued when talking about working with the actor on the set of the new movie:
The only time I had to say no to Jude and the entire film, ’cause creatively we were so aligned and he worked so hard, despite all the challenges, was I had to tell him at one point, ‘No, Jude, you actually can’t live out here on the set.’ [The] insurance company will not allow it.
Law also noted, while they would have loved to be even more true to the true story by shooting in the Galapagos, that’s not an option for filmmakers in order to preserve the islands to their “natural glory.” Law shared these words about filming in Australia:
What was extraordinary about Australia was it offered us this really rugged, raw, honest set where we could build. And as Ron said, there was a real sense of the outdoors. We had rainstorms and intense heat, spiders and snakes. Nothing was in the studio. But equally, it being Australia and the Australians are brilliant at this, we also had the opportunity to be able to go home and sleep comfortably and safely and go back to work the next day.
You can see Eden only in theaters as of today.
