Lena Dunham adapting Catherine, Called Birdy for film

Screenwriter and actress Lena Dunham has signed on to develop a film adaptation of historical children's novel Catherine, Called Birdy.

The Girls creator and star reveals she has been a big fan of author Karen Cushman's 1994 book since her youth and she jumped at the chance to pick up the movie rights for her production company A Casual Romance.

Sharing the news during an appearance at the New Yorker Festival on Friday (10Oct14), she said, "This is actually my first time talking about it publicly. I'm very excited about it. I'm not sure when it'll happen, but I'm in the process of (working on it)..."

Catherine, Called Birdy details the life and experiences of teenage character Catherine as she grows up in 13th Century England and Dunham admits it may be hard to find an investor for the unusual project.

She added, "It's a really interesting examination of sort of like, coming-of-age and what's expected of teenage girls. I'm going to adapt it and hopefully direct it, I just need to find someone who wants to fund a PG-13 medieval movie."

If the project comes to fruition, it won't be Dunham's first time as director - she has previously stepped behind the camera for her TV series Girls and also took charge of her independent films Tiny Furniture in 2010 and Creative Nonfiction in 2009.