Looks like Nicole Kidman is making herself at home in the TV landscape. The star of HBO’s upcoming “Big Little Lies” and the next season of “Top of the Lake” has signed on to produce another project for the small screen, Deadline reports. Kidman and her production company, Blossom Films, optioned Janice Y.K Lee’s “The Expatriates” with plans to adapt the book for television.
According to the source, “The Expatriates” “explores, with equal parts humor and drama, the complicated relationships of three American women as they navigate life inside tight-knit expat Hong Kong.”
Alice Bell (“Suburban Mayhem”) will write the script. Kidman, her Blossom partner Per Saari, and POW! Productions’ Theresa Park executive producing. Lee will serve as a consulting producer. Kidman might star in the project, which “will be shopped to premium networks and streaming-services.” No word yet about who will be directing or showrunning.
Kidman and Blossom Films, the production company behind “Big Little Lies,” are developing several other projects including adaptions of the books “Truly Madly Guilty” (for which Kidman will reteam with “Big Little Lies” costar and co-producer Reese Witherspoon), “The Silent Wife,” and “Reconstructing Amelia,” along with the Off-Broadway play “Cuddles.” Blossom Films’ titles include “Rabbit Hole,” “The Family Fang,” and “Monte Carlo.”
These projects aren’t random or just another job for Kidman. The Oscar-winning actress recently told the New York Times, “I’m only going for the things that I’m passionate about,” whether they are roles or opportunities to produce.
According to the Times, Kidman says “she has no real career plan, other than gravitating toward material that interests her, and seeking out writers and directors who are talented but unknown.” Kidman and Blossom are able to pull this off by “commission[ing] scripts out of pocket.”
We commend Kidman for using her talents and influence to pursue untold stories and to give changes to creators needing a breakthrough. However, we would like to make a request to Kidman and all powerful Hollywood women: Hire other women, please!
As Women and Hollywood has reported, the number of women directors on feature films has plateaued for the last decade. And that number isn’t even in the double-digits.
In its interview with Kidman, the New York Times wrote, “In today’s Hollywood, the best way to play interesting roles, or to ensure that complicated stories about adult women get to the screen (whether in theaters or on TV), is [for actresses] to take creative and business control.” Well, the same notion applies to ensuring women get to direct. If nothing else, women should be able to depend on other women’s support.
Also, if “complicated stories about adult women” are ever going to be the norm in Hollywood, we need adult women playing a role in writing and directing them. It’s really as simple as that.
Kidman portrays Celeste Wright in “Big Little Lies,” based on Liane Moriarty’s book about three women whose seemingly perfect lives begin to unravel. It premieres February 19 on HBO. Kidman will also appear in the upcoming “How to Talk to Girls at Parties,” “The Beguiled,” and “The Killing of a Sacred Deer.” She can currently be seen in “Lion,” for which she’s up for an Oscar.
