EXCLUSIVE: The Mentalist Actor Simon Baker, Bruna Papandrea’s “Made Up Stories” and Australian agent and producer Lee-Anne Higgins adapt Emily Perkins’ novel “Lioness”.
The trio have secured the rights to the hot book, which comes from bestselling Aotearoa New Zealand author Perkins and was recently awarded the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction at the 2024 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.
Baker, who will play his first leading role in a television series since The Mentalist on Netflix Boy swallows universe He will direct all episodes early this year. Papandrea, Steve Hutensky and Katie Amos will produce for Made Up Stories along with Higgins, Baker and Perkins.
lioness follows Therese Thorne, a woman who married a wealthy older man and built a successful career, whose loyalty and reputation are now threatened by a fraud investigation. She must grapple with love and complicity in midlife while also finding herself drawn to her neighbor Claire, who offers her a tantalizing, wild but risky new approach to womanhood.
The television rights deal was negotiated with The Agency (London) and is the latest female-led IP acquisition for Made Up Stories, which is behind Nine perfect strangers, Big little lies And The Lost Flowers by Alice Hart. In May, we announced that Made Up Stories had acquired the rights to develop Fiona McIntosh’s novel The Peal Thief into a feature film, and production is back underway on Binge Original Fight and in post-production of Marcelle Lunam’s feature film debut additive.
Higgins has now had a 20-year career as a talent representative, having founded United Management with Natasha Harrison and Trish McAskill. Before that, she worked with producer Jan Chapman on films such as The pianoand produced Gillian Anderson starring The last days of Chez NousRay Lawrence’s Lantana and Shirley Barrett’s Love Serenade.
Made Up Stories and Higgins said in a joint statement: “It always starts with a unique voice that drives us to bring a great story to the screen and when we first read Emily’s book we knew immediately this was the right thing for us. We look forward to working with truly original creatives like Emily and Simon to adapt this exhilarating book for the screen.”
Baker called the book “a beautiful, funny and brutally honest look at the dichotomy of aspiration and authentic identity in our time. Emily Perkins really understands the complexity of human beings and has written characters so layered and engaging that I am thrilled to be there when they come to life on screen.”
Australian-born Baker is best known for his leading role in the CBS drama The Mentalist between 2008 and 2015, which earned him nominations for the Screen Actors Guild, the Emmy and the Golden Globe. His films include LA Confidential, The devil Wears Prada And Margin calland was recently in the Netflix hit Boy swallows universeStephen Johnson’s AltitudeDel Kathryn Barton’s directorial debut, flameApple TV anthology series Roar alongside Nicole Kidman and Ivan Sen’s film limbo. He will next be seen in the Prime Video miniseries The narrow path to the deep northstarring Jacob Elordi and produced by Sony Pictures Television, and Taika Waititi’s adaptation of Kazoo Ishiguro’s novel Klara and the Sun.
Baker made his directorial debut with breathan adaptation of the 2018 novel of the same name by Tim Winton. It received a DGA Award and a nomination at the AACTA Awards – Australia’s answer to the Emmys.
Perkins said: “I’m thrilled that such strong creative forces as Bruna Papandrea, Lee-Anne Higgins and Simon Baker have taken on the role of Lioness. It’s great to know that they have built a connection to Therese’s story and I can’t wait to see how they bring it to the screen.”
Perkins is represented by Rogers, Coleridge and White.
