Conclave and All Quiet On the Western Front director Edward Berger has a lot of options in front of him for his next project. But according to Deadline, he’s settled on an adaptation of The Riders as his next film, and for good reason: it’ll star Brad Pitt.
Berger will direct Pitt in The Riders, a film distributed by A24 after a fierce bidding war between multiple studios. David Kajganich will adapt Tim Winton’s acclaimed 1995 novel.
Here’s a synopsis: The novel follows Fred Scully (Pitt), who, after traveling through Europe for two years, winds up in Ireland with his wife and daughter. And on a mystical whim of his wife Jennifer, they buy an old farmhouse that stands in the shadow of a castle. While Scully spends weeks alone renovating the old house, Jennifer returns to Australia to liquidate their assets. When Scully arrives at Shannon Airport to pick up Jennifer and their 7-year-old daughter, Billie, it is Billie who emerges — alone. There is no note, no explanation, not so much as a word from Jennifer, and the shock has left Billie speechless. In that instant, Scully’s life falls to pieces.
The story then follows Scully and Billie as they travel around Europe, retracing Jennifer’s steps in hopes of learning why she left them.
Pitt shoots David Fincher’s Cliff Booth film this summer, so The Riders will be next after that. He also has Joseph Kosinski’s F1 hitting theaters around the same time.
Berger recently agreed to direct Austin Butler in sci-fi project The Barrier. He also has a film about Evan Gershkovich, the first American journalist arrested by Russia since the Cold War, but it’s unclear when or if that’ll get off the ground. Gershkovich is working on his own movie. Recently, Berger shrugged off the idea of directing the next Jason Bourne sequel, so that’s likely not happening.
