Natalie Portman Set to Direct A TALE OF LOVE AND DARKNESS
Natalie Portman is set to make her directorial debut with a big screen adaptation of Amos Oz's memoir, A Tale of Love and Darkness. I guess it was only a matter of time before Portman jumped behind the camera and directed a film. It seems like something she was working her way up to, and now she's doing it. She was actually in the early stages of development on it back in 2007, but it ended up on the back burner while she worked on other things.
Oz gave an update on the film while talking to Reuters, saying that Portman is looking to visit Israel this fall to get ready, so that she can start shooting early next year in January. He went on to say,
“[Portman] read A Tale of Love and Darkness and asked me for the rights to make a film adaptation around five or six years ago. I agreed because of my high esteem for her work. She’s an excellent actor.”
He also says that he’s been helping develop script. Here's a description of the book:
Tragic, comic, and utterly honest, this extraordinary memoir is at once a great family saga and a magical self-portrait of a writer who witnessed the birth of a nation and lived through its turbulent history.
It is the story of a boy growing up in the war-torn Jerusalem of the forties and fifties, in a small apartment crowded with books in twelve languages and relatives speaking nearly as many. His mother and father, both wonderful people, were ill-suited to each other. When Oz was twelve and a half years old, his mother committed suicide, a tragedy that was to change his life. He leaves the constraints of the family and the community of dreamers, scholars, and failed businessmen and joins a kibbutz, changes his name, marries, has children, and finally becomes a writer as well as an active participant in the political life of Israel.
A story of clashing cultures and lives, of suffering and perseverance, of love and darkness.
I'm looking forward to seeing Portman's first film. Sounds like a pretty heavy drama, one that will make for a good movie.