It was bad enough when HBO canceled Enlightened, one of TV’s most brilliant series in the past decade. But it’s been hell seeing Laura Dern on the big screen since, stuck in unchallenging, ultra-conventional “nice mom” and “nice wife” roles in The Fault in Our Stars, When the Game Stands Tall, and Wild (a film I’m looking forward to, though I can’t help being leery that the 47-year-old Dern will play 38-year-old Reese Witherspoon’s parent).

Perhaps Dern is frustrated too, since she pitched a very different project — a comedy about obsessive female football fans — to Judd Apatow. The two will produce the untitled ensemble movie, to be written by South Park and Team America: World Police scribe Pam Brady, for Universal.

Dern will next appear in Wild (out December 5) and the drama 99 Homes.

In addition to Lena Dunham’s Girls, Apatow has collaborated with several female performers and filmmakers in recent years, such as Amy Schumer and Kimberly Peirce.

[via THR]