Natalie Portman-Lena Dunham Rom-Com ‘Good Sex’ Sparks EFM Bidding War With Offers At $45M+

Buyers at the EFM are eagerly pursuing Good Sex, with a heated bidding war underway. Warner Bros, Amazon, Apple, and Netflix are among the contenders vying for the sought-after project, which is attracting worldwide offers around the $45 million mark—a figure that could still climb higher.

Oscar winner Natalie Portman is set to lead the highly anticipated romantic comedy, which is both written and directed by Golden Globe winner Lena Dunham (Girls).

CAA Media Finance and FilmNation Entertainment introduced the project ahead of the market, and it has generated significant interest from both theatrical distributors and streaming platforms, standing out in an otherwise subdued EFM in terms of major deals.

This project taps into a cultural moment. Following Babygirl and Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy, age-gap romances are trending, and Good Sex puts Portman in the spotlight for a relationship with a younger man. Buyers familiar with the project have spoken highly of the script.

The synopsis reads:"After spending a decade in a failed relationship, successful couples’ therapist Ally (Portman) is turning 40 and is pushed, kicking and screaming, by her best friend back into the hopeless New York dating scene. But Ally finds her life pulled in opposing directions as she falls into a steamy fling with a 20-something Brooklyn hipster just as she begins a promising, more conventional relationship with Alan, a successful 50-something in Manhattan. As a romantic crossroads blossoms into a full-blown identity crisis, Ally juggles to keep these two very different men separate and to make sense of her own conflicting desires before she risks losing them both."

Casting for the two male leads is currently underway.

Portman and Sophie Mas will produce under their company, MountainA, alongside Dunham and Michael Cohen through their Good Thing Going banner.

Portman has previously expressed her admiration for Dunham’s work as a filmmaker, citing Tiny Furniture as a source of inspiration.

The Black Swan and May December actress has Fountain of Youth, directed by Guy Ritchie, and The Gallerist, helmed by Cathy Yan, in post-production. Meanwhile, Girls creator Dunham is finishing work on her Netflix miniseries Too Much, starring Will Sharpe and Megan Stalter.

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