Director Put Charlize Theron and Taron Egerton Through Hell for Apex

Charlize Theron stars in Apex, a Netflix survival thriller directed by Baltasar Kormákur. The film, due on April 24, 2026, pits Theron’s grieving rock climber against the Australian wilderness and a serial killer played by Taron Egerton.

Kormákur said he aimed to "drag the cast through hell," using space, weather and landscape as a character to shape the story. Theron said the director led by example, "always the first one to f***ing do the craziest thing that he was asking us to do," while Egerton described being "petrified" after attempting a wire-hang free fall, which he found particularly challenging.

Egerton takes on a rare villainous turn as Ben, a sadistic hunter Kormákur urged him to unlock by wanting him to "find the creep inside himself." The actor said he preferred hints about Ben’s past rather than spelling out a full pathology. Apex follows a grieving woman testing her limits in the Australian wilderness who becomes ensnared in a deadly game with the predator Ben.

Australia, Australian wilderness

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