River Road Entertainment said Thursday that it will adapt Greg Grandin’s “Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford’s Forgotten Jungle City.”
River Road founder Bill Pohlad will produce, and Sarah Hammer will oversee production. Ben Coccio, whose credits include Derek Cianfrance’s “The Place Beyond the Pines,” has been hired to adapt the screenplay.
The big screen version of the film will revolve around the American men who carried out the ambitions of Henry Ford to build a utopian American industrial town in the midst of the Brazilian Amazon.
Published in 2009, the book was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. It offers a cautionary tale on capitalism.
Also read: Pulitzer-Winning Robert Schenkkan Adapting 'The Demonologist' for Universal
The news comes a day after Universal set the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Robert Schenkkan to adapt Andrew Pyper's upcoming novel “The Demonologist” for the big screen. Schenkkan is currently working on ”The Conscientious Objector,” which he is writing for Walden Media. Randy Wallace is attached to direct, and Bill Mechanic is producing. Schennkan is also writing “Hunter Scott” for Warner Bros. with Team Downey producing .
River Road recently completed filming for Steve McQueen’s “Twelve Years a Slave,” starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender and Brad Pitt.