Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon Team On ‘Big Little Lies’ Rights Deal

Nicole Kidman and her Blossom Films production banner, along with Reese Witherspoon and her Pacific Standard, have optioned screen rights to The New York Times bestseller Big Little Lies. The Oscar-winning actresses will shape the novel by Liane Moriarty as a star vehicle for themselves. Witherspoon’s Pacific Standard partner Bruna Papandrea and Blossom partner Per Saari will produce with Kidman and Witherspoon.

Big Little LiesThe novel tells the comic tale of three mothers of kindergartners whose apparently perfect lives unravel to the point of murder. The book just got published. Pacific Standard and Blossom Films, both book-smart companies, have been busy. Pacific Standard just produced the Jean Marc Vallee-directed Wild for Fox Searchlight based on the Cheryl Strayed memoir, with Witherspoon starring; the David Fincher-directed Gone Girl; and the untitled Anne Fletcher-directed comedy that stars Witherspoon and Sofia Vergara for MGM and New Line. Books on the Pacific Standard slate include Pennyroyal’s Boot Camp and The Engagements at Fox 2000. Blossom Films is currently filming the Jason Bateman-directed adaptation of the Kevin Wilson novel The Family Fang, with Kidman and Bateman starring together. Blossom produced Rabbit Hole, which got Kidman an Oscar nom, and Monte Carlo. Also in the works are book adaptations of The Silent Wife and Reconstructing Amelia, the latter in development at HBO Films.

Australian novelist Moriarty, who’ll serve in a producing capacity, wrote the bestsellers What Alice Forgot, Three Wishes, The Hypnotist’s Love Story and The Husband’s Secret, along with a line of children’s books.

Jerry Kalajian of the Intellectual Property Group, attorney Matt Sugarman, Fiona Inglis at Curtis Brown Australia and Faye Bender repped the author, while Pacific Standard is repped by Hansen, Jacobson, CAA and LBI, and Blossom is repped by Alan Werthheimer, CAA and Media Talent Group.

– Deadline