Since its debut at SXSW this year, where it won the Best Feature award, the indie drama “Tiny Furniture” has been the recipient of some mostly strong buzz. The film, from 24-year-old actress-writer-director Lena Dunham, follows a film studies grad who returns to New York after graduating, and picked up mostly very strong reviews, although it should be noted that our man on the ground at IFFBoston sort of hated it.
Nevertheless, Dunham’s clearly a talent to watch, and Deadline has reported that she’s teaming with comedy super-producer Judd Apatow for an as-yet-untitled pilot for HBO. The autobiographical show will follow a group of girls in their early 20s, and their “assorted humiliations and rare triumphs.” Dunham will write and star in the show, direct the pilot and serve as an executive producer, alongside Apatow and Jenni Konner, who got her start as a writer on Apatow’s “Undeclared.”
The “Knocked Up” director has a long history of nurturing young comedy talent, from giving Seth Rogen a break as a writer on the aforementioned “Undeclared,” to developing a feature with 20-year-old comedy songwriter Bo Burnham, and it seems like Dunham’s set to be his next prodigy: he told Deadline that “Lena has a unique, truthful comic voice. I am excited to work with her and learn from her.”
Until we see “Tiny Furniture” for ourselves, we’ll give Dunham the benefit of the doubt: you can check out the trailer, which is certain to turn much of our readership incandescent with rage, below. But at the very least, by adding Apatow to its talent pool, HBO continues to add to a fairly extraordinary brain trust.
