Joe Wright To Direct AI Thriller ‘Alignment’ For Fifth Season And Makeready

EXCLUSIVE: In what turned into one of the more competitive open directing assignments of the year, sources tell Deadline Joe Wright has landed the highly-coveted directing job for the AI thriller Alignment at Fifth Season. Natan Dolan penned the spec with Makeready producing. Scott Silver will exec produce.

The story follows a cutting-edge tech company whose latest AI model begins manipulating global markets and stoking international conflict, a principled board member and an out of his depth software engineer must race to convince their profit-obsessed colleagues to shut down their creation before it triggers a globally catastrophic event.

Fifth Season landed the spec in one of 2024’s bigger spec sales following a highly competitive bidding war. Insiders say the search for a director was equally intense with half dozen directors in the mix for the job. Wright’s take eventually won over producers and now that he is on board the project will be fast tracked given how the topic of AI is such a hot button topic for execs around the industry trying to get their own projects out.

Wright is an English film director best known for Pride & Prejudice (2005), Atonement (2007), Anna Karenina (2012), and Darkest Hour (2017). He also directed the pilot and second episode of the critically acclaimed The Agency and serves as an executive producer on the show.

Wright is repped by CAA. Scott Silver is repped by CAA and Bryan Wolf at Ziffren, Brittenham.