Emma Seligman and Rachel Sennott are celebrating the success of “Shiva Baby” by reteaming on another comedy. The pair are set to co-write “Bottoms,” the story of “two unpopular queer girls who start a fight club to have sex before their high school graduation,” for MGM’s Orion Pictures. The Hollywood Reporter confirmed the news.
Produced by Elizabeth Banks and Max Handelman’s Brownstone Productions, “Bottoms” will be directed by Seligman and star Sennott.
Seligman wrote and directed “Shiva Baby,” which boasts a 96 percent Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Sennott stars in the critically acclaimed comedy about a college student and sex worker who unexpectedly crosses paths with her sugar daddy and high school girlfriend at a Jewish funeral service she’s attending with her parents.
“To me, it’s about a young bisexual woman reckoning with her family, tradition, and independence. More importantly though, it is about that bitter realization many young women have when they realize that their sexual power isn’t as far-reaching as they thought and that their self-esteem can’t be entirely fulfilled by sexual validation,” Seligman told us.
Asked what advice she’d give other women directors, Seligman said, “The advice that I try to tell myself whenever I have to pitch anything, and would say to other filmmakers as well, is to try to have the same amount of confidence that my male peers have when they walk into a room. I’m actively trying not to second guess myself when I naturally always worry that I’ll come off as overconfident or cocky.”