Australian author Tim Winton’s post-apocalyptic, climate-change-inspired novel Juice is set to be adapted for the big screen by a multi-Oscar-winning UK production company.

Working Title Films – whose credits include movies such as Fargo, Darkest Hour, Love Actually and the recent Hugh Jackman-led surprise box-office hit The Sheep Detectives – has brought filmmaker Joe Wright on board to direct the new film, according to Deadline.

Wright describes Juice as “both a thrilling modern family saga and an urgent call to action”.

“I cannot wait for audiences to experience it on the big screen,” the director said.

Published in 2024, Juice is the most recent novel by WA-based Winton, the Miles Franklin Award-winning and Booker Prize-shortlisted author of more than 30 books including Cloudstreet, Dirt Music and The Riders – which is also being turned into a film starring Hollywood heavyweight Brad Pitt.

No actors have yet been attached to Juice, but it is reportedly being adapted for the screen by BAFTA and Emmy-winning writer Abi Morgan (The Iron Lady).

Falling within the genre known as “cli-fi” (climate fiction), the story is set hundreds of years in the future, in an Australia devastated by climate change. Civilisation as we know it has been long since forgotten.

However, Juice’s young narrator, who lives in a remote outpost with searing temperatures in the north-west of WA, discovers that the world wasn’t always so depleted and that there are powerful people who might still be held accountable.

Winton is known as an environmental campaigner and advocate, but many reviews have described Juice as a departure from the style of his previous novels.

Fellow author Julia Baird said it represented “eco-anxiety on steroids”, while New Scientist referred to the novel as “a barnstorming, coruscating work of fiction”.

Speaking to ABC radio in Perth at the time of the book’s publication, Winton himself explained that he believed the story was timely, given climate challenges and how they would affect the next generation.

“We’re at this really precarious moment in human history, where what we do and what we don’t do probably in the next six or seven years may determine the future of the planet, and certainly the prospects of the people who come after us,” he said.

Winton told Deadline last week he was confident Juice was in good hands with Wright, who won a BAFTA for his work on Pride & Prejudice and has been nominated for a string of other films such as Darkest Hour, Atonement and Cyrano.

“I’m pleased to know a filmmaker of Joe Wright’s calibre has chosen to adapt Juice for the screen,” the author said.

“His capacity to portray the turmoil and the turning points of nations and peoples as well as private individuals distinguishes his work as a director.”

Fans of Winton and Juice have also welcomed the news.

“As I read the book I knew it would make a film which shakes and rattles us all,” wrote one Facebook user.

“If ever there was a book that deserves a serious and professional film production to handle it, it is Juice. One of the most confronting and compelling stories I have ever read,” commented another.

Several of Winton’s previous novels have been adapted for the screen, including Cloudstreet (which was made into a mini-series), Breath, Dirt Music and, most recently, Blueback.

US studio A24 is financing the adaptation of his 1994 Booker-shortlisted novel The Riders, which is currently in production and being directed by BAFTA-winning, Oscar-nominated filmmaker Edward Berger (Conclave).

It was announced last year that Pitt will play the lead role of Fred Scully in the thriller, which revolves around an Australian family planning a fresh start in a renovated cottage in the Irish countryside.

When Scully’s young daughter returns to Ireland on a flight from Australia without her mother and with no explanation about where she is, he embarks on a frantic search for the missing woman.

The Riders is being shot at multiple locations across Europe, with Ridley Scott producing and the cast also including Julianne Nicholson (I, Tonya) and young actor Coco Greenstone.