Natalie Portman is making her directorial debut with a project that she will make in Jerusalem, where she was born. The Oscar-winner will use local actors and use a small budget to make it.
The film will be based on A Tale of Love and Darkness, Amos Oz’s autobiography. According to the Jerusalem Post, Portman has had this project in mind for years and will finally get to make it after receiving a grant from the Jerusalem Film Fund to make it. Yoram Honig, a spokeswoman for the project, told The Associated Press that Portman will play Oz’s mother and has written the screenplay.
It’s still not clear if it will be made in Hebrew or English. The grant gives Portman NIS 2,550,000 (about $710,544 in US dollars) to make the film.
Portman was born in Jerusalem and studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem before going to Harvard.
While this is the first feature for Portman as director, E! News notes that she did helm a short for New York, I Love You in 2009.
Portman also acted as producer on her most recent film, Jane Got A Gun. She won an Oscar for Black Swan and is married to choreographer Benjamin Millepied. They have a son, Aleph.
Portman is currently working on two Terrence Malick films and will be seen in Thor: The Dark World in November.
image: Wikimedia Commons
