Michel Gondry To Direct 'As She Climbed Across The Table', A Love Triangle Involving A Black Hole

Countless fictional romances have been built around love triangles. But what about a sci-fi romance focusing on a love triangle between a particle physicist, her ex-boyfriend, and a black hole? Director Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) is slated to tackle that story with an adaptation of Jonathan Lethem's novel As She Climbed Across the Table, which is set up at Amazon Studios and Chernin Entertainment.

The Hollywood Reporter has the news on the film. If this is the first time you're hearing of this strange book published back in 1997 by the writer of Motherless Brooklyn, here's the official synopsis from Amazon:

Alice Coombs is a particle physicist, and she and her colleagues have created a void, a hole in the universe, that they have taken to calling Lack. But Lack is a nullity with taste—tastes; it absorbs a pomegranate, light bulbs, an argyle sock; it disdains a bow tie, an ice ax, and a scrambled duck egg. To Alice, this selectivity translates as an irresistible personality. To Philip, it makes Lack an unbeatable rival, for how can he win Alice back from something that has no flaws—because it has no qualities?

That sounds exactly the kind of strange romance that is perfect for Michel Gondry, who gave us the unique but tragic romance of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind with Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet, and the quirky French love story in The Science of Sleep. Gondry's last feature film was the French comng-of-age film Microbe & Gasoline, though he's kept busy with short films and episodes of Kidding on Showtime. My big question is this: will he bring in is penchant for unique practical special effects using various in-camera tricks, or will he rely on modern visual effects technology?

Scripting As She Climbed Across the Table will be Joe Penhall, the creator of Netflix's crime drama Mindhunter. Leave it to the guy who got inside the mind of serial killers to figure out how to personify a black hole enough to bring it into a love triangle with a man and woman.

Chernin Entertainment will be producing with Raffi Adlan executive producing. It's clear when Amazon hopes to begin production or when the movie might be released, but this will definitely be a project that we keep our eyes on.