Nicole Kidman to Star in, Produce Liane Moriarty’s 'Nine Perfect Strangers'

The move puts Kidman back in business with the 'Big Little Lies' author.

Nicole Kidman’s Blossom Films and Bruna Papandrea’s Made Up Stories have closed a preemptive deal for TV/film rights to Liane Moriarty’s upcoming novel Nine Perfect Strangers.

The move puts Kidman back in business with the Big Little Lies author and fellow Aussie, with the actress set to star in and executive produce Nine Perfect Strangers. Kidman and her producing partner Per Saari exec produced the HBO Emmy-winning series Big Little Lies, as did Papandrea. The trio will executive produce Nine Perfect Strangers — which a source said is likely heading to the small screen — along with Made Up Stories' Steve Hutensky as well as Moriarty.

“I’m so very happy and thrilled to once again be working with Nicole, Per and Bruna," said Moriarty, a No. 1 New York Times bestselling author whose books also include The Husband's Secret. "They are such talented, passionate people and I have no doubt that whatever they do with my Nine Perfect Strangers, it will be brilliant. I’m honored by their faith in this book — even before I’d written ‘the end’ they believed in it, and I just feel very lucky to have had them come into my life.”

Nine Perfect Strangers will hit shelves Nov. 6. The book takes place at a remote health resort where a group of people are gathered for a reboot on life. Frances Welty (Kidman) serves as the story's protagonist as a former best-selling romantic novelist mending a broken heart.

Kidman and Saari's Blossom Films' film credits include Rabbit Hole, for which the actress received an Oscar nomination, as well as The Family Fang and Monte Carlo. With an eye toward female-led best-sellers, the company's upcoming development titles include adaptations of The Silent Wife, Reconstructing Amelia and The Expatriates. Blossom also is spearheading an adaptation of Moriarty’s novel Truly Madly Guilty into a limited series. Its next project is David E. Kelley’s limited series The Undoing, which will go into production in 2019 and star Kidman.

After splitting with her longtime producing partner Reese Witherspoon, Papandrea launched Made Up Stories and quickly set a slate that includes Jennifer Kent’s The Nightingale and rising filmmaker Abe Forsythe’s Little Monsters, the latter of which stars Lupita Nyong’o and Josh Gad. On the TV front, the company has the upcoming TNT series Tell Me Your Secrets as well as Meaghan Oppenheimer’s Queen America, starring Catherine Zeta-Jones and directed by Alethea Jones, which received a 10-episode, straight-to-series order by Facebook’s new video platform, Facebook Watch.

The second season of Big Little Lies is currently in production, with Kidman reprising her Emmy-winning role as Celeste Wright. No air date has been announced yet.

Moriarty was represented in the Nine Perfect Strangers deal by Jerry Kalajian of Intellectual Property Group, Fiona Inglis of Curtis Brown Australia, Faye Bender of The Book Group and attorney Matt Sugarman.

Kidman is handled by CAA, Media Talent Group and attorney Alan Wertheimer.

Papandrea is repped by WME.