Girls creator Lena Dunham will now be working on a new project. This time for producers J.J. Abrams and Steven Speilberg.

According to new reports, Dunham will be writing the screenplay for A Hope More Powerful Than the Sea. More on the report below.

Variety says the film will be an adaptation of A Hope More Powerful Than the Sea: One Refugee’s Incredible Story of Love, Loss, and Survival, which tells the real-life survival story of Doaa Al-Zamel, a Syrian mother of two fleeing Egypt for Sweden by boat. Along the way, she and two children became shipwrecked in open waters and survived on the flotation device for two days.

The nonfiction release comes from author Melissa Fleming, the chief spokeswoman for the United Nations High Commissioner and Flatiron Books.
Here’s the official description of the story:

A Hope More Powerful Than the Sea tells the story of Doaa Al-Zamel, a Syrian girl whose life was upended in 2011 by her country’s brutal civil war. She and her family escape to Egypt, but life soon quickly becomes dangerous for Syrians in that country. Doaa and her fiancé decide to flee to Europe to seek safety and an education, but four days after setting sail on a smuggler’s dilapidated fishing vessel along with five hundred other refugees, their boat is struck and begins to sink…

Dunham is certainly an interesting choice for the project. While it is nice to see that she will be responsible for writing the script with the blessing of Abrams and Spielberg. However, its strange that they wouldn’t at least consider a Syrian filmmaker to write the project. That being said, Arif Hussein will executive produce.

This will be a Paramount Pictures title with the production backing of Abrams’ Bad Robot Productions and Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment. The two are also expected to distribute the film internationally. This is a very harrowing story of survival that has all the makings of a good film. And it’s a nice step away for Bad Robot, who has been known for some big-budget blockbuster films.

No release date has been set, but we will keep you posted on any developments should they come in.

[Source: Variety]