‘Portlandia’s Carrie Brownstein To Make Feature Directorial Debut On MGM’s ‘Fairy Godmother’

EXCLUSIVE: Carrie Brownstein, the actress, writer, musician, is getting ready to add “feature director” to her repertoire. The co-creator, writer and star of IFC’s Emmy-nominated comedy Portlandia will make her feature film directorial debut on MGM’s Fairy Godmother. Take note: this marks the sixth female director that MGM has employed on its films, following Kimberly Pierce on Carrie; Anne Fletcher for Hot Pursuit; Thea Sharrock on Me Before You; Stella Meghie on Everything, Everything; and Rachel Lee Goldenberg on Valley Girl.

Brownstein has previously directed episodes of Portlandia, Hulu’s Casual, Comedy Central’s Idiotsitter, and the KENZO short film The Realest Real which starred Natasha Lyonne and Mahershala Ali. That one was a finalist for the 2017 Tribeca X Award.

MGM picked up Fairy Godmother last year as a spec after a bidding war. The screenplay was the first written by playwright /blogger Chiara Atik and is a comic revisionist look at the classic Fairy Godmother tale. Its logline: When sought-after Fairy Godmother Faye is hired by a mind-bogglingly gorgeous teenage client, Kenzie, to find her true love with the hottest prince in the land, Faye finds herself facing an unfamiliar challenge when the prince starts falling for her instead.

Whiplash producer Helen Estabrook is on board to produce and MGM’s Exec VP of production Cassidy Lange, is overseeing the project for the studio.

Brownstein is also an author and musician. She is a founder and guitarist and vocalist of the rock band Sleater-Kinney and authored a New York Times ‘Notable Book:’ Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl: A Memoir

Brownstein, who also starred with Jeffrey Tambor in Amazon’s Emmy-winning Transparent, is repped by UTA, Brillstein Entertainment Partners and Jared Levine at Morris Yorn.