Lena Dunham, who created and starred in “Girls” for HBO, a show that followed four 20-something women in New York, is producing a new series for HBO Max. This round, she aims at a younger demo: high-school students.
The WarnerMedia streamer has picked up 10 episodes of “Generation,” the first scripted pilot to earn a series pickup. It is scheduled for August 2020; HBO Max debuts next May.
Co-created by Zelda Barnz, 18, and her screenwriter father Daniel Barnz, the show chronicles Gen Z’s experiences of sexuality and its approach to love and family in a conservative town. Daniel Barnz also directed the pilot.
Sarah Aubrey, head of original content at HBO Max, stated the show supplies “an inside look at the windy path many adolescents have to navigate as they come to terms with their identity and sexuality …”
Dunham added: “I have fallen head over heels for this brilliant family, who have allowed their 18-year-old daughter Zelda to express herself in a way that’s both effortlessly funny and plumbs the depths of the adolescent experience.”
Dunham will executive produce “Generation” for Good Thing Going Productions; Daniel and Ben Barnz will executive produce for We’re Not Brothers Productions. Zelda Barnz is also co-executive producer.
Dunham has been featured in both TV and film, as well as directing several episodes of “Girls.” She was the first woman to win the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Comedy Series. She also earned an Independent Spirit Award for her screenplay “Tiny Furniture.”