Lena Dunham Bringing Refugee Survival Tale to Big Screen for Steven Spielberg, J.J. Abrams


The Paramount Pictures movie will see the 'Girls' creator adapt the story of a mother and her two kids fleeing Egypt for Sweden.


Girls creator Lena Dunham is set to adapt a Syrian refugee story for co-producers Steven Spielberg and J.J. Abrams.


Dunham will pen an adapted screenplay for A Hope More Powerful Than the Sea, a book by Melissa Fleming that tells the survival journey of Doaa Al Zamel, a young Syrian refugee who, along with her two children, had to flee Egypt by sea for a better life in Sweden.


The Paramount Pictures project is set up with Abrams’ Bad Robot Productions and Spielberg’s Amblin Partners as co-producers. Amblin and Paramount will handle the movie project's distribution worldwide.


Dunham recently ended her long-time producing partnership with fellow Camping writer and executive producer Jenni Konner before their joint overall deal with HBO for their A Casual Romance Productions banner expired. Camping marked the first TV series follow-up for the duo since Girls ended its critically praised six-season run on HBO in 2017.


The Jennifer Garner-starring comedy, comprising eight episodes, debuted on HBO on Oct. 14.


On the acting front, Dunham is starring in Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and also starred in FX's American Horror Story for its seventh season.