HBO orders less-autobiographical-than-usual pilot from Lena Dunham

By William Hughes | October 14, 2015 | 1:44am

Aux Features TV

Deviating from her usual M.O.—in that her protagonist will not be someone who looks, talks, and sounds exactly like Lena Dunham—Girls creator Lena Dunham has sold another pilot to her friends at HBO. Max, written by Girls producer Murray Miller and directed by Dunham, will tell the story of an ambitious magazine writer who stumbles into the second-wave feminism movement of the 1960s. And while that sounds like a pretty Lena Dunham-y part to play—that is, a feminist writer who stumbles into things—the starring role will apparently be going to Lisa Joyce, who starred opposite Adam Brody in Neil LaBute’s step-incest comedy Billy & Billie.

Dunham has been characteristically busy of late; besides Girls, she wrote a book last year, guest-starred on Scandal, and was central to the remarkably bad conclusion of a recent episode of The Simpsons. (All key components of the vital thinkpiece-and-angry-tweet generating Hating Lena Dunham economy.) If it gets picked up by the network, Max will be her second regular series with HBO, ensuring those furnaces burn bright for at least a few more years.