Toni Collette is returning to the small screen. A press release announced that the “United States of Tara” alumna will topline Netflix and BBC One’s “Wanderlust,” a six-episode, hourlong family drama.
Currently in production in Manchester, England, the series “looks at how we build and maintain happy relationships and asks whether lifelong monogamy is possible — or even desirable,” according to its official synopsis. Collette plays Joy Richards, “a therapist trying to find a way to keep her spark alive with her husband after a cycling accident causes them to reassess their relationship. As we meet her family, friends, neighbors, and clients, remarkable yet relatable stories of love, lust, and forbidden desire emerge.”
“Constellations” playwright Nick Payne penned the script and Luke Snellin (“My Mad Fat Diary”) is directing.
“I am honored and thrilled to work with Nick Payne’s wonderful words on ‘Wanderlust,’” said Collette. “It is an authentic and revolutionary story about relationships, sex, love, and all the things we really care about. I could not be more excited.”
Collette won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for portraying a woman with dissociative identity disorder in “United States of Tara.” The Diablo Cody-created dramedy aired on Showtime from 2009–2011. Since then, her TV credits include “Devil’s Playground” and “Hostages,” and she’s appeared in films such as “Enough Said,” “Tammy,” and “Miss You Already.” Collette scored an Oscar nod in 2000 for “The Sixth Sense.”
Earlier this year Collette nabbed the rights to “The Rosie Project” author Graeme Simsion’s novel and screenplay for romance “The Best of Adam Sharp,” and she’s also developing Julia Dahl’s award-winning novel “Invisible City” for TV. In addition to optioning the murder mystery, Collette penned the pilot and is among the project’s executive producers.
Collette has described Hollywood’s gender imbalance as a “grave problem,” and said it’s something she’d like to “help address.” She explained, “I think there’s a real imbalance in terms of storytelling, the stories being told. I want to try and help even that out.”
