Bill Pohlad has hired Ben Coccio, screenwriter of upcoming Toronto world premiere The Place Beyond The Pines, to adapt the story about Henry Ford’s ill-fated Brazilian utopia project.

The screenplay will be based on Pulitzer Prize finalist Greg Grandin’s Fordlandia: The Rise And Fall Of Henry Ford’s Forgotten Jungle City and will chart the tycoon’s bid to erect an Amazonian industrial town in one of the most inhospitable places on earth.

Pohlad (pictured) will produce Fordlandia and Sarah Hammer will oversee production for River Road.

Christa Zofcin negotiated the deals on behalf of River Road. Grandin is represented by APA and the Susan Rabiner Agency, Coccio by CAA, Media Talent Group and Hansen, Jacobson, Teller, Hoberman, Newman, Warren & Richman.

River Road is currently in production on Steve McQueen’s Twelve Years A Slave starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender and Brad Pitt.