The Big Picture
- Clea DuVall will adapt Anna Dorn’s novel “Perfume & Pain” for TV; the novel is an homage to 1950s lesbian pulp fiction.
- Main character Astrid Dahl faces turmoil after being “canceled”, caught between two women and the pressure of success.
- DuVall, known for her acting and directing work, will bring the adaptation to life with Killer Films producing.
Anna Dorn‘s Perfume & Pain just hit bookstore shelves a few months ago, but there’s already an adaptation in the works. Clea DuVall will write and direct a TV adaptation of the new novel. Variety reports that Legendary Television will produce the series.
The book, which was published this May, is an homage to the lesbian pulp fiction of the 1950s. Its main character, moderately successful author Astrid Dahl, finds herself at loose ends after being “canceled” thanks to an unfortunate incident. She soon finds herself caught between two women – Ivy, a grad student researching sapphic pulp novels, and Penelope, her earthy older neighbor. However, when her book gets optioned by actress/influencer Kat Gold, the pressure makes Astrid resort to a vice even more dangerous than women – a combination of Adderall, alcohol, and tobacco that she dubs “the Patricia Highsmith“. Pretty soon, much like the heroines of so many pulp novels, she’s in deep, deep trouble.
Who Is Clea DuVall?
DuVall (who is of no relation to actor Robert Duvall) made her screen debut with the supernatural teen film Little Witches in 1996. She starred in a number of prominent teen movies in the 1990s, including Can’t Hardly Wait, The Faculty, She’s All That, and But I’m a Cheerleader; the latter, a satirical comedy about a gay-conversion camp, introduced DuVall to longtime friends and collaborators Natasha Lyonne and Melanie Lynskey, and presaged her coming out as gay in 2016. She subsequently starred in the films Ghosts of Mars, The Grudge, Zodiac, and Argo; she also had a leading role on the HBO series Carnivàle. In recent years, she has had recurring roles on Better Call Saul, Veep, and The Handmaid’s Tale. She recently turned up as Lyonne’s estranged sister in the first-season finale of the Peacock mystery series Poker Face. DuVall made her feature directorial debut with the 2016 dramedy The Intervention, and followed that up with the 2020 lesbian rom-com Happiest Season. In her previous forays into TV production, she co-created and starred in the animated sitcom HouseBroken, and created and directed the Amazon Freevee series High School.
Perfume & Pain will be produced by Christine Vachon and Pamela Koffler under their Killer Films banner. Killer Films has released a number of projects with strong LGBT themes, including I Shot Andy Warhol, Boys Don’t Cry, Velvet Goldmine, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and Carol.
Clea DuVall’s adaptation of Perfume & Pain is in development; no release date has yet been announced. Stay tuned to Collider for future updates.
