St. Vincent to direct female-fronted adaptation of The Picture of Dorian Gray

Annie Clark made her directorial debut this year with the female-driven horror anthology XX

Oscar Wilde's 1890 novel The Picture of Dorian Gray has been adapted many times to film, but Annie Clark is bringing a new twist to the story.

Clark, better known by her stage name St. Vincent, will be making her feature-length debut with a new version of the classic tale in which the title character is a woman, with the tale of a hedonist who stays eternally young thanks to a portrait stashed in the attic now taking new meaning in its examination of female beauty standards.

Variety reports David Birke has been hired to write the script, having previously penned Paul Verhoeven's controversial thriller Elle, starring Isabelle Huppert.

Clark made her first project as a director this year with the female-driven horror anthology XX; also co-writing and scoring her entry "Birthday Party", which starred Melanie Lynskey as a distraught housewife trying to conceal her husband's corpse during her son's birthday party.

It's a deliciously dark and stylish debut, which bodes well for a new spin on Wilde's work, especially since it also offered a unique and thoughtful portrait of womanhood in its brief runtime.

She previously won the Grammy for Best Alternative Album in 2015 for the self-titled St. Vincent.