Sony Pictures-backed indie, Eleventh Hour Films, is teaming with Climate Spring to develop a new legal drama set against the background of cutting-edge environmental law inspired by Monica Feria-Tinta’s 2025 book ‘A Barrister For The Earth’.
First published in April 2025 and shortlisted at the Westminster book Awards, the non-fiction book from British-Peruvian barrister Feria-Tinta will serve as inspiration for the original series, with screenwriter Victoria Asare-Archer attached to develop.
Climate Spring is a global organisation dedicated to shifting the cultural response to the climate crisis by transforming how it is represented in film, TV, and popular culture.
Asare-Archer was lead writer and executive producer on the Harlan Coben adaptation ‘Missing You’ for Netflix, which was watched by 58m in its first six months. She previously wrote two episodes of ‘Stay Close’ for Netflix and the Emmy nominated VR game Doctor Who: The Runaway.
“Monica is a fearless legal mind who has written a book that deftly demonstrates how the law is a powerful tool for the survival of our planet” say Eve Gutierrez and Paula Cuddy, Co-CEOs, Eleventh Hour Films. “More than anything she offers us what we’re all looking for right now – hope for the future.
“We’re delighted to have the brilliant screenwriter Victoria Asare-Archer spin an original contemporary series set in this exciting new world of environmental law, and to partner with Climate Spring who share our vision to deliver commercial scripted content in this space”.
Lucy Stone, Founder and Executive Director at Climate Spring, said: “We’re thrilled to bring our partnership and climate narrative expertise to this project. Legal drama is an exciting storytelling lens to explore the climate crisis, with huge potential to reach audiences who come for the entertainment, while thoughtfully unpacking questions of justice, accountability and power. At Climate Spring, we champion stories that reflect our changing world – asking who is truly responsible, but also illuminating pathways forward. A series centred on the shift in understanding of nature’s rights is especially timely, opening up visions about what justice for people and other species could look like.”
Specialising in Public International Law, Feria-Tinta has been called one of ‘the most daring, innovative and creative lawyers’ in the United Kingdom. In 2025 she won “Woman of the Year” at the Women and Diversity Law Awards, was shortlisted for “Barrister of the Year” at The Lawyers’ Awards in 2020 and 2025 and at Chambers and Partners UK Bar Awards 2023 for her work in addressing climate change and environmental degradation. Having pioneered a legal path to bring climate change before international tribunals in 2016, she served as counsel in all ground-breaking Advisory Opinions on the subject, spanning the Law of the Sea, human rights and the World Court. In 2020, she acted before the Constitutional Court of Ecuador in Los Cedros case, the first ‘Rights of Nature’ case in the world. In September 2022 her work as Counsel secured a win in the Torres Strait Islanders case, a landmark moment in which the UN Human Rights Committee found a Sovereign state responsible, for the first time in history, for lack of action in addressing climate change.
“I’m honoured that Eleventh Hour Films and Climate Spring see the potential for this story to reach a wider audience,” said Monica Feria Tinta. “The issues at the heart of this book – environmental justice, the beauty of the natural world, and the power of the law to protect it – deserve to be seen and heard.”
‘A Barrister For The Earth’ is published in the UK by Faber. The paperback edition will be published on 21st May.
Jon Creamer
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