Despite the irresistible and bizarre pairing of Brad Pitt and Natalie Portman in the lead roles, Important Artifacts and Personal Property from the Collection of Lenore Dooland and Harold Morris, Including Books, Street Fashion and Jewelry will be a tough sell as a movie. It's based on a book that's structured as a Sotheby's auction catalog, listing the items that the main couple (Portman and Pitt, of course) accumulated over the course of their four-year relationship.

But who better to take on the adaptation than Greg Mottola? The Adventureland writer-director is wrapping up post-production on his next film Paul, and THR reports that next he'll tackle writing the Important Artifacts screenplay for Paramount. Mottola will apparently be structuring the film as a romantic comedy, and despite the fact that it ends with the breakup of the main couple, you can totally see how that will work.

Mottola is quietly becoming one of the most interesting writers or directors out there, after the touching and nostalgic Adventureland and with the sci-fi potential wonder of Paul on its way. A gig writing a screenplay for a studio might not win him the same notice as the films he's also directed, but he'll be giving us the gift of one of the few well-written romantic comedies, and hopefully that's enough.