Nine Perfect Strangers Might Just Be The Next Big Little Lies
When Nicole Kidman and David E Kelly are involved in a project together, you know that what their cooking up is most probably gold. While it seems almost impossible for Big Little lies to return to the screen, we can assure you the next best thing has arrived. A limited series based on BLL author Liane Moriarty’s Nine Perfect Strangers is set to premiere in August on Hulu. Here’s everything we know so far.
SERIES SYNOPSIS
The source material for the series, which was confirmed by THR in May 2019, is the 2018 novel of the same name by Moriarty. Nine Perfect Strangers, the author’s eighth adult novel, takes place at a boutique health-and-wellness resort that promises healing and transformation as nine stressed city dwellers try to get on a path to a better way of living. Watching over them during this ten-day retreat is the resort’s director Masha (Kidman), a woman on a mission to reinvigorate their tired minds and bodies. However, these nine “perfect” strangers have no idea what is about to hit them via Variety.
“We live in paradise. Most of us live such comfortable middle-class lives, and so, is it the desire for suffering? And this desire we all have for transformation,” Moriarty told The Guardian in 2018 of her inspiration for the novel. She continues, “I can never see an article that says, ‘Just change this one thing about your life and you’ll be transformed forever-even though you know when you click on it, it won’t work, I find it irresistible.” The series feels like it’s directly inspired by previous projects, like Big Little Lies and The Undoing.
“I’m so proud of what we were able to pull together this past year, bringing ‘Nine Perfect Strangers’ filming to Australia during the global COVID-19 pandemic,” Kidman said. “Partnering with Melissa McCarthy, working with David Kelley, Liane Moriarty, and my producing cohorts again, joining forces with Hulu in the USA, and now this, a global distribution deal with my home studio of Amazon. The stars have aligned and I am thrilled,” she added via The Economic Times.
“The characters are so well-drawn,” Evans teased of the series. Boone added that every day on set with such a star-studded cast was “like getting paid to go to acting class.”
CAST AND PRODUCTION
Kidman was attached to the show from the start, having acquired rights to the book prior to its release in July 2018, per The Hollywood Reporter. The Oscar winner will star as Masha and produce the series alongside executive producer Bruna Papandrea ( Big Little Lies, Gone Girl). Kelley will serve as showrunner with John Henry Butterworth ( Ford v Ferrari) and they both will also write the series along with Samantha Strauss ( The End). Jonathan Levine will direct all eight episodes of the limited series. He’ll also executive produce the project. The show was filmed in the beachside town of Byron Bay at a luxury resort called Soma in Australia.
There are nine guests at the wellness retreat, each of whom arrives to Tranquillum House bearing secrets. So, who is playing the so-called “perfect strangers?”
- Oscar nominee Melissa McCarthy who will star in and also executive-produce the series will play Frances who is described in the novel as “a down-on-her-luck romance novelist whose publisher has rejected her latest manuscript.”
- Late June brought the casting of Luke Evans (Beauty and the Beast, The Alienist). Per Deadline, he’ll play Lars, who’s described as a “gorgeous gay divorce lawyer”.
- Grace Van Patten (The Meyerowitz Stories, Maniac) joined the cast in late July who’ll play fellow stranger Zoe, who according to entered the retreat to cope with the death of her twin brother, Zach.
- The next addition to the star-studded cast is Samara Weaving who’ll play Jessica and Snowfall’s Melvin Gregg will play her character’s husband Ben. According to Kirkus Reviews, Ben and Jessica Chandler are “a young couple whose relationship broke down after they won the lottery.”
- Regina Hall has been cast as Carmel who will play “a single mom of four who was dumped for a younger woman by her bored hubby.”
- was also the first to report the casting of Michael Shannon as Napoleon, another of the strangers. Per the outlet, his character is married to Heather (Asher Keddie) and is father to Zoe (Grace Van Patten). The family enters the retreat while grieving.
- Rounding out the cast is Bobby Cannavale as the ninth perfect stranger, Tony, who is branded as “a beer-bellied former football star” and potential love interest for McCarthy’s Frances.
Now that we’ve rounded out the strangers, let’s talk about the employees at Tranquillum house that will be the ones wreaking havoc.
- As mentioned before, Kidman will play the sinister Masha, who’s the Russian director of Nine Perfect Strangers’ Tranquilium House.
- Deadline reported that Manny Jacinto will star in the series as Yao, who is described as “a bright-eyed man-kid with a hipster vibe.” After experiencing a life-or-death experience alongside Kidman’s character, Yao becomes her right hand at the wellness resort, Tranquillum. The outlet notes that Yao is “deeply committed” to the unorthodox techniques of the resort and “entirely in (Masha’s) thrall.”
- Tiffany Boone, who starred as the younger version of Kerry Washington’s Mia on Hulu’s Little Fires Everywhere, will play Delilah, an employee at the Tranquillum resort. While filming the series in Australia, Kidman told ELLE of Boone, “We did a scene yesterday where she really moved me. I was humbled by her openness and willingness to explore all aspects of the scene.” Boone said her character is “very zen, but she has this little fire in her.”
- Another latecomer to the cast is Zoe Terakes, who plays Glory, another employee at the Tranquillum Wellness Center, per Deadline.
In October 2020, Kidman spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about the “strict protocol” surrounding production on the series, particularly in group scenes involving all 10 principle actors. “It’s an ensemble, so 10 actors that are all working together, that are adjusting to being tested every day,” she told the outlet. “There’s really strict protocol. But you always know that at some point it could shut down, which is stressful. As an actor, it’s just amazing to be able to work. But as a producer, there’s an enormous amount of stress, feeling responsible for over 300 people’s safety and health.”
RELEASE DATE AND TRAILER
The show will premiere on Wednesday, August 18, with new episodes dropping weekly. The first teaser for the show debuted during the 2021 Academy Awards. Watch it below.
Are you excited for Nine Perfect Strangers? Will you devourer it all in one sitting? I sure as hell will. I mean who wouldn’t wanna see Nicole Kidman as the leader of a mysterious cult group. Let me know your thoughts down below.
Originally published at “The Weekly Diversion” on June 10, 2021.
