The Lost City is a 2022 American action-adventure comedy film directed by the Nee brothers, who co-wrote the screenplay with Oren Uziel and Dana Fox, from a story conceived by Seth Gordon. It stars Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum as a romance novelist and her cover model, who must escape a billionaire (Daniel Radcliffe) and find the lost ancient city described in one of her books. The film co-stars Da’Vine Joy Randolph, with cameo appearances by Brad Pitt and Stephen Lang. The project was announced in October 2020, with Bullock joining as producer and star and Tatum joining that December; the rest of the cast was announced the following year. Filming took place in the Dominican Republic from May to August 2021. The film premiered at South by Southwest on March 12, 2022, and was theatrically released by Paramount Pictures in the United States on March 25, 2022. It has grossed over $187 million worldwide against a $68 million budget. Loretta Sage writes romance-adventure novels centered around a fictional heroine, Dr. Angela Lovemore, and her romantic interest, Dash McMahon. To promote the latest book on Lovemore, her publisher, Beth Hatten, insists that Loretta embark on a book tour with Alan Caprison, the book’s cover model for Dash, despite her reclusiveness since the death of her husband.
After a disastrous start, mostly due to the popularity of Alan’s Dash persona, Loretta is kidnapped by Abigail Fairfax, a billionaire who realizes that Loretta based her books on actual historic research she did with her late archaeologist husband. He discovered a lost city on a remote Atlantic island and is convinced the “Crown of Fire”, a priceless treasure, is located there. When she declines to help decipher an ancient map to the treasure, Fairfax, fearing an active volcano will destroy the site, chloroforms and takes Loretta to the island. Alan, who is secretly enamored with Loretta, witnesses her kidnapping. He recruits Jack Trainer, a former Navy SEAL turned CIA operative, to meet him on the island and coordinate a rescue. Jack, with no assistance from Alan, breaches Fairfax’s compound and frees Loretta, but is shot in the head before they can make it to the airport, forcing Loretta and Alan to escape into the jungle. Loretta and Alan spend a day fighting off Fairfax’s henchmen before reaching a nearby village, where upon hearing a folk song from a local, Loretta deduces that the crown is hidden in a cenote in the jungle. Before they can leave however, Fairfax captures her again, so a chase by Alan to save Loretta ensues. The two are then forced to share the treasure’s location with Fairfax.
