Assume operating an ultramarathon sounds terrifying? Filmmaker and runner Victoria Negri is popping that concern right into a psychological thriller, Extremely, set round Badwater 135, now starring Divergent‘s Shailene Woodley.
Author and director Negri took to Instagram on Tuesday to announce the casting. “Past thrilled to announce Shailene Woodley might be our star for Extremely. Can’t wait to go on this journey with you, Shai! We’re going to make a surprising movie!”
Woodley, 33, is finest identified for enjoying Beatrice (“Tris”) Prior within the Divergent, Rebel and Allegiant movies. In Extremely, she is going to painting Eve, an athlete grieving the demise of her twin sister, who takes on the Badwater 135m, a 135-mile (215-km) ultramarathon via California’s Dying Valley, often called one of the excessive endurance races on the earth.
The plot
Based on Selection, the thriller follows Eve as she battles each the scorching circumstances and her personal thoughts all through the race. The synopsis reads: “As Eve takes on the unforgiving parts and intense bodily and psychological pressure of the race, she finds herself pursued by an unknown runner in white, constantly closing the hole between them as they surge via the desert. Attempting to outrun the ominous presence, Eve will face the darkest components of herself and uncover what she is product of.”
Within the precise Badwater 135, most runners put on white or light-coloured full-coverage gear to replicate the extreme warmth of Dying Valley, the place temperatures can attain 54 C. The route begins at 86 metres under sea stage and climbs to 2,550m.
Based mostly on life experiences
From New Haven, Conn., Negri, an ultrarunner herself, has accomplished 4 50-mile races and two 100-mile races. She additionally directed the ultramarathon documentary brief Private Greatest (2024) which follows trend mannequin Lucie Beatrix as she turns to ultrarunning to deal with habit and grief. The 38-year-old filmmaker can also be identified for Gold Star (2017) and Mermaid, Bitch (2025); Extremely is her second function movie.
Negri says Extremely relies on her personal experiences, which, whereas tragic, have been additionally transformative. “My father was a distance runner, left paralyzed by a stroke,” she informed Selection. “Working, the factor that gave him life, was taken from him.”
Negri has since discovered which means within the endurance sport herself, racing occasions such because the Badwater 51-miler in March and final week’s Javelina Jundred 100-miler in Arizona, which she accomplished in 25:35:36. She mentioned she created Extremely utilizing operating to discover how individuals course of grief. “It’s via testing my limits in every of those epic races that I course of loss–bodily ache being the best metaphor for the emotional,” Negri mentioned. “Though my grief is at all times with me, I’ve realized I’m sturdy sufficient to deal with it, to deal with something.”
In her Instagram announcement, Negri additionally thanked Badwater race director Chris Kostman, writing: “You’ll by no means know the extent to which inviting me out to Badwater so a few years in the past has really modified my life. I’m a greater particular person due to ultras. Endlessly thanks.”
