One of author Liane Moriarty’s books is receiving another peak TV treatment from Hulu. Moraiarty, who authored “Big Little Lies,” will see another one of her stories on the small screen as a limited series. Titled Nine Perfect Strangers, it’s a drama set in a health and wellness facility. Once again, Moriarty’s story is pulling in serious big league talent with Nicole Kidman already set to star and produce. Now joining Kidman in the cast is none other than Melissa McCarthy, who gave two of the best performances of the last decade with her turns in Bridesmaids and Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Nine Perfect Strangers
Deadline broke the news of McCarthy’s casting. The Hulu show marks the actor’s return to a television series four years after her last show, the popular CBS sitcom Mike & Molly, ended. Since then, she’s continued to star in hit comedies and score an Oscar nomination.
In Nine Perfect Strangers, McCarthy will play Frances Welty. Welty is a bestselling romance novelist with both back and relationship troubles, so she seeks treatment at a spa among eight other strangers. If Nine Perfect Strangers was a horror story, it’d have a pretty nice set up right there.
The Big Little Lies Team Reunites
Nicole Kidman’s Blossom Pictures, showrunner David E. Kelley, and producer Bruna Papandrea’s Made Up Stories were the team behind HBO’s Big Little Lies. Again, they’re reuniting for Nine Perfect Strangers. They’re planning their adaptation as a limited series, but then again, that was also the initial idea for the now two-season-long Big Little Lies.
Kelley co-wrote Hulu’s Nine Perfect Strangers with John Henry Butterworth and Samantha Strauss. Kelley and Buttworth are the co-showrunners of the series, in which Kidman will play the director of the fancy wellness spa. Kidman’s character watches over the nine strangers over a ten day retreat, wanting nothing but the best for them. Supposedly.
Big Little Lies Season Three?
Since Kelley and Kidman are now moving on to make Nine Perfect Strangers, where does this leave a potential third season of Big Little Lies? Season two ended with closure for what was important, but there was still some unresolved drama and conflict at the end. A few months ago, Kidman confirmed a third season is likely, but there’s nothing yet official about it.
Official Book Synopsis
Nine people gather at a remote health resort. Some are here to lose weight, some are here to get a reboot on life, some are here for reasons they can’t even admit to themselves. Amidst all of the luxury and pampering, the mindfulness and meditation, they know these ten days might involve some real work. But none of them could imagine just how challenging the next ten days are going to be.
Frances Welty, the formerly best-selling romantic novelist, arrives at Tranquillum House nursing a bad back, a broken heart, and an exquisitely painful paper cut. She’s immediately intrigued by her fellow guests. Most of them don’t look to be in need of a health resort at all. But the person that intrigues her most is the strange and charismatic owner/director of Tranquillum House. Could this person really have the answers Frances didn’t even know she was seeking? Should Frances put aside her doubts and immerse herself in everything Tranquillum House has to offer – or should she run while she still can?
It’s not long before every guest at Tranquillum House is asking exactly the same question. Combining all of the hallmarks that have made her writing a go-to for anyone looking for wickedly smart, page-turning fiction that will make you laugh and gasp, Liane Moriarty’s Nine Perfect Strangers once again shows why she is a master of her craft.
