Actor and author Lena Dunham has added another project with news that she plans to adapt Karen Cushman’s 1994 YA novel Catherine, Called Birdy for the big screen. According to Variety, Dunham revealed the news at the New Yorker Festival on Friday: “I’m going to adapt it and hopefully direct it,†she said. “I just need to find someone who wants to fund a PG-13 Medieval movie.†Dunham will develop the film alongside Girls executive producer Jenni Konner through their production company A Casual Romance, which Dunham said is for “projects that sort of aren’t set in the here and now.†Here’s how Dunham described the novel, set in 1290s England:
“[She] gets her period and her father basically says, ‘Well, it’s time for you to get married,’ and she’s like, ‘Uh, no,’†Dunham told the audience about the book’s titular protagonist. “But it’s hyper realistic and really pretty and it’s full of incest and beatings, but it’s a child’s story. I’ve been obsessed with it since I was a kid.â€
No word yet on when the adaptation will be in theaters, but it’ll probably wait at least until after Dunham finishes her book tour for Not That Kind of Girl, which is now paying its opening acts after the backlash last month.