Natalie Portman set to direct, star in Dear Abby-Ann Landers drama

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

It's been announced that BLACK SWAN and ANNIHILATION star Natalie Portman will direct and star in an upcoming drama centered around Esther and Pauline Friedman, the twin sisters responsible for writing the long-standing Ann Landers and Dear Abby advise columns. It's being said that, for the pic, Portman will portray both siblings, who for years engaged in a rather vitriolic professional rivalry, despite both sisters leading full and inspired lives as individuals.

Penning the upcoming drama is Katie Robbins, whose current work involves serving as a producer on Showtime's THE AFFAIR, which tells the on-going story of a struggling novelist and a young waitress who strike up an extramarital relationship that promises to forever change the course of their lives. Peter Saraf and Dani Melia of Big Beach will produce the yet-to-be-named film project.

The Dear Abby and Ann Landers project will mark Portman's second time behind the camera as a feature director, after she made her directing debut with 2015's A TALE OF LOVE AND DARKNESS, which told the story of Amos Oz's youth, and was set against the backdrop of the end of the British Mandate for Palestine and the early years of the State of Israel. The film details the young man's relationship with his mother and his beginnings as a writer, while looking at what happens when the stories we tell become the stories we live.

No further details related to the Ann Landers and Dear Abby pic have been released at this time.