*UPDATE- Variety is now confirming this news, with all of the details exactly the same. So…what did we need them for?* Original story from last friggin’ month below.*
A few years ago Natalie Portman made her directorial debut with the Hebrew-language drama A Tale of Love and Darkness. While it didn’t attract a wide audience, the promise showed by Portman behind the camera was undeniable, especially when you factor in the years she spent in production and that she also took a starring role. All of that experience should serve her well because Collider reports she is set to write and direct a film about the sisters by advice columns Dear Abby and Ann Landers.
The untitled film has a script by Katie Robbins (The Affair), and will feature Portman in dual roles as identical twin sisters Esther and Pauline Friedman, writers of the syndicated Ann Landers and Dear Abby advice columns. Born in Iowa in 1918, the siblings were extremely close until Esther accepted a position writing the Ann Landers column for the Chicago Sun-Times. Pauline would then start a rival column, and it led to a feud between the sisters that lasted for decades and even trickled down to their daughters.
So far there’s no start date. The Oscar-winning Portman has a lot coming up, including Brady Corbet’s Vox Lux, Xavier Dolan’s The Death and Life of John F. Donovan, and the sci-fi drama Pale Blue Dot.
