Great news today: Mary-Louise Parker is set as a lead opposite Natalie in HBO Films’ The Days Of Abandonment, based on Elena Ferrante’s best-selling novel. The film, which is currently in pre-production, hails from writer-director Maggie Betts (Novitiate), Natalie Portman and her MountainA Films, Maven Screen Media, Len Amato’s Crash & Salvage and Fandango. Ferrante also serves as an executive producer.

Written and directed by Betts, The Days of Abandonment revolves around Tess, played by Natalie. When Tess, a woman who abandoned her own dreams for a stable home life, is in turn abandoned by her husband, her world is thrown off its axis. 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.

We hope to know soon where the filming will take place…