Tim Winton’s The Riders is headed to the big screen, with Brad Pitt attached to star, Variety reports.
Winton’s novel, published in the U.S. in 1995 by Scribner, tells the story of Fred Scully, an Australian man who goes in search of his missing wife with his 7-year-old daughter, Billie, in tow. A critic for Kirkus wrote of the book, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, “Emotions, character, and intellect so perfectly calibrated that a modest story of love betrayed becomes, in Winton’s hands, a minor masterpiece.”
Pitt will star in the film, which is set to be directed by Edward Berger, known for helming the movies All Quiet on the Western Front and Conclave. Berger is also directing a film adaptation of Lawrence Osborne’s The Ballad of a Small Player, starring Colin Farrell and Tilda Swinton.
The Riders will be written by David Kajganich (A Bigger Splash, Suspiria). Pitt, Berger, Kajganich, and Ridley Scott are among the film’s producers.
Winton’s books have been adapted for the screen before. His Lockie Leonard series of children’s books formed the basis for Lockie Leonard, an Australian television series that aired from 2007 to 2010. And his novel Dirt Music, a Booker Prize finalist, was adapted into a 2019 film directed by Gregor Jordan and starring Garrett Hedlund and Kelly Macdonald.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
