UPDATE: The hottest package at EFM Berlin has got to be “Good Sex.” The project has sparked a bidding war with Warner Bros, Amazon, Apple and Netflix among the studios in the mix to acquire the project. Bidding is said to currently be at $45M and rising.
Natalie Portman is set to star in “Good Sex,” written and to be directed by Lena Dunham (“Girls”). The project will be shopped around at next week’s EFM market in Berlin.
After the success of “Babygirl,” Dunham/Portman’s film will also tackle an age gap romance. This time around, Nicole Kidman will be taking a backseat, and it’ll be Portman’s turn to have an intense affair with a younger man.
“Good Sex” is said to involve Ally (Portman), a 40-ish couple’s therapist who “falls into a steamy fling” with a 20-something Brooklyn hipster just as she begins a promising, more conventional relationship with Alan, a successful 50-something in Manhattan.
Portman previously praised Dunham as a filmmaker, including her iconic HBO series “Girls,” but especially Dunham’s 2009 debut “Tiny Furniture”:
I remember seeing Tiny Furniture, Lena Dunham’s film, and when the credits rolled I started crying because it was written by Lena Dunham, starring Lena Dunham, produced by Lena Dunham, and directed by Lena Dunham. This young woman has no fear of [saying] “I did it, I did all of this.” And it was so good.
Dunham recently dropped out of directing a “Polly Pocket” movie. She then released a statement which included her saying, “I feel like the next movie I make needs to feel like a movie that I absolutely have to make. No one but me could make it. And I did think other people could make ‘Polly Pocket.'”
Dunham is coming off having directed two films, both released in 2022, “Sharp Stick” and “Catherine Called Birdy” — the former was panned by critics and the latter earned decent reviews.