New Pictures Options The Petroleum Papers

New Pictures, an All3Media company, has secured the rights to Geoff Dembicki’s The Petroleum Papers: Inside the Far-Right Conspiracy to Cover Up Climate Change.

David MacPherson (The Rig) is attached to adapt the book as a multi-episode drama, with Imogen O’Sullivan executive producing. The book draws on hundreds of confidential oil industry documents spanning decades, revealing how the fossil fuel industry joined forces with right-wing politicians to halt progress on preventing the climate crisis.

Climate Spring is acting as climate consultant to New Pictures on the adaptation, with All3Media International advising as international distribution partner.

Willow Grylls, co-founder and CEO of New Pictures, and O’Sullivan, executive producer, said: “The Petroleum Papers will build on Geoff Dembicki’s powerful investigative journalism to create a multi-stranded drama which lays bare the decades-long conspiracy to block meaningful action on climate change in the pursuit of profit. Our series will tell this compelling story through the characters involved: from the oil executives and lobbyists covering up the evidence to the whistleblowers who stuck their necks out to expose their masters and the campaigners and communities most imperiled by climate change which took on the corporate monoliths and their allies. As Donald Trump is elected to his second term promising to “drill, baby drill,” this series couldn’t be more important or more timely.”

Dembicki, global managing editor of the climate media outlet DeSmog, said: “The story of how oil companies worked behind the scenes for decades to deny their role in climate change isn’t just one of the most enraging corporate cover-ups in modern history, it’s also a fascinating human saga of greed, denial and the power of truth-telling. I couldn’t be more thrilled that New Pictures is bringing it to the screen.”

Jen Gauthier, publisher of Greystone Books, said: “The Petroleum Papers is one of the most important climate books of our time, and we could not be more delighted that New Pictures has optioned Geoff’s work for the screen. We are incredibly proud of Geoff, who bravely places the blame for preventing the climate crisis with oil companies in this damning, impeccably reported, and thoroughly researched book, and we can’t wait to see how his gripping storyline transforms into a series with New Pictures.”