Natalie Portman to star in and executive produce film adaptation of The Days of Abandonment for HBO

Natalie Portman to star in and executive produce film adaptation of best-selling Italian novel The Days of Abandonment for HBO

Natalie Portman is lining up her next big role and taking the reins behind the camera to boot.

The 39-year-old Academy Award winner is set to star in and executive produce the film adaptation of the popular book The Days of Abandonment for HBO Films, Deadline reported on Tuesday.

The drama is based on the critically acclaimed 2002 Italian novel of the same name penned by author Elena Ferrante.

New role: Natalie Portman is set to start in and executive produce the film adaptation of the popular book The Days of Abandonment for HBO Films, Deadline reported on Tuesday

Portman is already in the midst of pre-production on The Days of Abandonment which is being made in conjunction with her MountainA Films production company, according to Deadline.

The author of the novel, Ferrante, is also on board as an executive producer. 

Natalie will play Tess (Olga in the original Italian version of the book), who is a stay-at-home-mom suddenly grappling with her identity when she is abandoned by her husband. 

‘Adapted from Ferrante’s tour-de-force novel of the same name, The Days of Abandonment is a visceral, no-holds-barred journey into the mind of a woman in crisis that confronts the norms of motherhood and female identity as Tess traverses the darkest reaches of her own psyche,’ Deadline explained.

Source material: The drama is based on the critically acclaimed 2002 Italian novel of the same name penned by author Elena Ferrante

Source material: The drama is based on the critically acclaimed 2002 Italian novel of the same name penned by author Elena Ferrante

Recently, the Black Swan star has found herself in the headlines again over comments she previously made dubbing musician Moby ‘creepy.’ 

Moby addressed his controversial relationship with Portman in an interview to promote his new album, and a documentary which he has titled Moby Doc.

The 55-year-old musician – born Richard Melville Hall – caught backlash in 2019 when the actress hit back at his claims from his second memoir that the pair dated when she was 20, instead blasting him as just being ‘an older man being creepy.’

Now, in an interview with The Guardian, Moby admits ‘there are times when I’ve been portrayed badly and it was accurate’ and has spoken about some of the regret he feels looking back on his past. 

Controversy: Recently, the Black Swan star has found herself in the headlines again over comments she previously made in 2019 dubbing musician Moby 'creepy' for saying in his memoir that the pair dated

Controversy: Recently, the Black Swan star has found herself in the headlines again over comments she previously made in 2019 dubbing musician Moby ‘creepy’ for saying in his memoir that the pair dated

After his memoir was released, Portman told Harper’s Bazaar in 2019: ‘I was surprised to hear that he characterized the very short time that I knew him as dating because my recollection is a much older man being creepy with me when I just had graduated high school.

‘He said I was 20. I definitely wasn’t. I was a teenager. I had just turned 18.’

The mother-of-two also criticized the Moby’s publisher for not checking the facts of the story, saying she thought it was a ‘deliberate’ attempt to sell books.

After his memoir was released, Portman told Harper's Bazaar in 2019: 'I was surprised to hear that he characterized the very short time that I knew him as dating because my recollection is a much older man being creepy with me when I just had graduated high school.'

After his memoir was released, Portman told Harper’s Bazaar in 2019: ‘I was surprised to hear that he characterized the very short time that I knew him as dating because my recollection is a much older man being creepy with me when I just had graduated high school.’

Talking about the scandal to The Guardian, Moby said: ‘You know, you’re asking me to open up such a can of worms… There’s no good way to answer: one option is terrible, the other is really terrible.’

Asked whether he regretted any of his behavior around Portman, he said: ‘A part of me wishes I could spend the next two hours deconstructing the whole thing… but there’s levels of complexity and nuance that I really can’t go into.’

He concluded: ‘There is a part of me in hindsight that wishes I hadn’t written the book. But then, sales figures indicate that not that many people actually read it.’

Talking about the scandal to The Guardian, Moby said: 'You know, you're asking me to open up such a can of worms… There's no good way to answer: one option is terrible, the other is really terrible.' (Moby in 2000)

Talking about the scandal to The Guardian, Moby said: ‘You know, you’re asking me to open up such a can of worms… There’s no good way to answer: one option is terrible, the other is really terrible.’ (Moby in 2000)