EXCLUSIVE: The Mentalist actor Simon Baker, Bruna Papandrea’s Made Up Stories and Australian agent-producer Lee-Anne Higgins are taking to adapt Emily Perkins’ novel ‘Lioness.’
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The trio have optioned the hot book, which comes from bestselling Aotearoa New Zealand author Perkins and won the recent Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction at the 2024 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.
Baker, who took his first full TV series starring role since The Mentalist in Netflix’s Boy Swallows Universe earlier this year, will direct all episodes. 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 has married a wealthy older man and built a successful career, but now finds a fraud investigation threatening her sense of loyalty as well as her reputation. She faces a midlife reckoning about love and complicity, while being drawn to her neighbour, Claire, who offers an enticing, wild, but risky new approach to womanhood.
The deal for TV rights was negotiated with The Agency (London), and is the latest female-led story IP acquisition for Made Up Stories, which is behind the likes of Nine Perfect Strangers , Big Little Lies and The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart . In May, we revealed Made Up Stories had purchased rights to develop the Fiona McIntosh novel ‘The Peal Thief’ as a feature film. It is also back in production on Binge original Strife and in post-production on Marcelle Lunam’s feature film debut Addition .
Higgins, meanwhile, has had a 20-year career as a talent rep after establishing United Management with Natasha Harrison and Trish McAskill. Before that, she worked with producer Jan Chapman on films such as The Piano , Gillian Armstrong’s The Last Days of Chez Nous , Ray 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 compels us to want to bring a great story to screen, and when we first read Emily’s book, we knew immediately this was for us. We are excited to collaborate with truly original creatives in Emily and Simon in adapting this intoxicating book for the screen.”
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Baker called the book, “A beautiful, witty and searingly honest look at the dichotomy of aspiration and authentic identity in our time. Emily Perkins truly understands the complexity of people and has written characters so rich and engaging that I’m thrilled to be a part of seeing them come to life on the screen.”
Australia-born Baker is best known for starring in CBS drama The Mentalist between 2008 and 2015, landing him Screen Actors Guild-, Emmy- and Golden Globe nominations. His film credits include LA Confidential , The Devil Wears Prada and Margin Call , and has more recently appeared in Netflix hit Boy Swallows Universe , Stephen Johnson’s High Ground , Del Kathryn Barton’s directorial debut, Blaze , Apple TV anthology series Roar opposite Nicole Kidman, and Ivan Sen’s film Limbo . He’s next set to star in Prime Video’s miniseries The Narrow Road to the Deep North , which stars Jacob Elordi and comes from Sony Pictures Television, and Taika Waititi’s film adaptation of the Kazoo Ishiguro novel ‘Klara and the Sun.’
Baker made his directorial debut with Breath , a 2018 adaptation of Tim Winton’s novel of the same name. It won him a DGA award and a nomination at the AACTA Awards — Australia’s answer to the Emmys.
Perkins said: “I’m thrilled that ‘Lioness’ has been taken on by such strong creative forces as Bruna Papandrea, Lee-Anne Higgins and Simon Baker – it’s great to know they’ve connected with Therese’s story, and I can’t wait to see how they explore it for the screen.”
Perkins is represented by Rogers, Coleridge and White.
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