UTA Signs ‘Union County’ Filmmaker Adam Meeks (EXCLUSIVE)

UTA has signed “Union County” filmmaker Adam Meeks for representation.

“Union County,” starring Will Poulter and Noah Centineo, debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in January, earning rave reviews and an extended standing ovation. In the film, Poulter and Centineo play brothers grappling with opioid addiction; Meeks seamlessly blends their performances with the real-life participants of a court-sponsored drug rehabilitation program in rural Ohio.

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Earlier this month, Variety exclusively revealed that Oscilloscope Laboratories acquired the recovery-focused drama for distribution, with plans for a theatrical release later this year.

“Union County” is the writer-director’s debut feature, expanded from his 2020 short film by the same name. The short made its world premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival and continued on the international festival circuit with screenings at the Champs-Élysées Film Festival and the Palm Springs International ShortFest, among others.

In an extended Q&A at Sundance, Poulter, who also served as a producer on the feature, explained what made Meeks’ script stand apart from other takes on the opioid crisis. “It didn’t really start with a story and then a search for a place,” he explained. “But rather the story that was being told was a reflection of the real work that was being done.”

Meeks was inspired to craft “Union County” after spending time with his extended family, who live in that area of the state. His uncle introduced him to the drug court judge, who invited him to sit in on a meeting. As for how he developed the hybrid narrative, Meeks explained: “It was also important to fictionalize the core narrative, both as a way to get to a certain kind of intimacy of storytelling and a character portrait, but also to allow us as filmmakers to observe the difficult moments and the kind of treacherous nature and do it without imposing that on somebody who’s going through recovery. It’s an extremely difficult, long process that doesn’t need a camera crew alongside it.”

Meeks is a Brooklyn-based filmmaker and graduate of the NYU Tisch School of the Arts; he is also a Film Independent Screenwriting Lab Fellow. In addition to UTA, Meeks is represented by Untitled Entertainment and Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz.