Shailene Woodley is stepping into a gripping new role as she takes the lead in Ultra, an upcoming psychological thriller.
Written and directed by Victoria Negri (Gold Star, Personal Best), the Divergent star will portray Eve, an ultramarathon runner who enters the world’s most extreme race, the Badwater 135 Ultramarathon — a 135-mile endurance challenge through California’s Death Valley.
Still mourning the tragic death of her twin sister, Eve finds herself battling both physical exhaustion and haunting psychological turmoil as she realises she’s being followed by a mysterious runner dressed in white who seems to be closing in on her.
Negri, who brings her own background as a long-distance runner to the story, explained the deeply personal inspiration behind Ultra.
“My father was a distance runner, left paralysed by a stroke. Running, the thing that gave him life, was taken from him. He suffered, and finally succumbed,” she said in a statement.
“While finding my emotional footing, I grew to become an ultrarunner… It’s through testing my limits in these races that I process loss — physical pain being the greatest metaphor for the emotional.”
She added, “Although my grief is always with me, I’ve learned I’m strong enough to handle it… I wrote Ultra from this intense personal journey, using running as the cinematic vehicle to depict the ways in which we process grief.”
Ultra is produced by Allison Rose Carter and Jon Read for Savage Rose Films (Everything Everywhere All at Once) alongside Iris Torres.
Woodley recently appeared in the action-thriller Motor City with Alan Ritchson, Ben Foster, and Pablo Schreiber.