'Union County' Premieres at Sundance With Real Drug Court
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- "Union County" is Adam Meeks' feature directorial debut, expanding his 2020 short film of the same name and premiering in Sundance's U.S. Dramatic Competition in January 2026.
- Will Poulter stars as Cody Parsons, a young man in opioid recovery, opposite Noah Centineo as his foster brother Jack, with both actors serving as producers on the film.
- The production shot on location in Bellefontaine, Ohio (population under 15,000), with actors attending real Narcotics Anonymous meetings and drug court sessions months before filming.
- Annette Deao, a real recovery counselor, plays herself in the film, and actual recovery participants appear on camera during their own court dates, blending documentary vérité with the scripted scenes — which Meeks, Poulter, and Centineo shot in between.
- Poulter says "Union County" aims to rewrite the popular imagination of addiction by showing rural beauty and hope rather than "bleak street corners in the blistering cold," drawing on his prior role as a Big Pharma executive in Hulu's "Dopesick."
- Centineo called Poulter the cast's "centerpiece" and noted they previously worked together on Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza's 2025 Navy SEAL drama "Warfare," framing the project as part of his Arkhum Productions' slate of "dangerous stories."
- Oscilloscope Laboratories releases the film theatrically on Friday, August 14, 2026.
Why it matters: The film offers audiences rare, on-the-ground access to a working Ohio drug court whose program Poulter cites as reducing relapse — a counter-narrative to the bleak addiction portrayals he argues dominate popular imagination. Oscilloscope's August 14 theatrical release gives that hope-centered framing a mainstream platform beyond the festival circuit.
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