Joe Wright to Direct Tim Winton's 'Juice' for Working Title
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- Joe Wright, a two-time BAFTA winner, is attached to direct Working Title Films' feature take on Tim Winton's post-apocalyptic novel "Juice," with the company optioning the rights.
- Abi Morgan, a BAFTA and Emmy winner known for The Hour, Shame, and The Iron Lady, is set to adapt the screenplay.
- "Juice" is set in a world fractured by climate-change disaster, centering on a young husband and father recruited into a resistance militia targeting the wealthy culprits behind the catastrophe before a mission goes wrong.
- Wright's credits span Atonement, Pride & Prejudice, Anna Karenina, Darkest Hour, Hanna, and The Soloist, and he most recently directed The Agency for Showtime/Paramount+.
- Tim Winton has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize twice and authored Cloudstreet, Breath, The Turning, and Blueback — all previously adapted into films.
- Winton's novel The Riders is currently in post-production at A24 with Brad Pitt starring and Conclave's Edward Berger directing, produced by Scott Free.
- Working Title Films, led by Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner, counts 150-plus films and TV programs that have grossed over $9B globally, alongside 10 Best Picture nominations, 15 Academy Awards, 16 Golden Globes, and 41 BAFTAs.
Why it matters: Working Title is deploying its prestige resources on climate-fiction sci-fi with a director whose track record is period literary adaptation, betting that Wright's Atonement-grade craft can translate to a resistance-thriller tone. The project lands while Winton's profile is surging — Brad Pitt and Edward Berger's A24 adaptation of The Riders is already in post — giving the author rare simultaneous Hollywood momentum.
