EXCLUSIVE: The Mentalist actor Simon Baker , Bruna Papandrea ‘s Made Up Stories and Australian agent-producer Lee-Ann Higgins are taking to adapt Emily Perkins’ novel ‘ Lioness .’ 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 L.