Hulu announced today that Jonathan Levine (50/50, Warm Bodies) is set to direct their new tentpole series Nine Perfect Strangers, as reported via Deadline. Levine will work with an all-star cast that includes Nicole Kidman (The Hours, Big Little Lies), Melissa McCarthy (Can You Ever Forgive Me, Tammy), Samara Weaving (Ready or Not), Luke Evans (Dracula Untold), Melvin Gregg (The Way Back), Grace Van Patten (Under the Silver Lake) and Tiffany Boone (Hunters).
Nine Perfect Strangers is based on the book of the same name by author Liane Moriarty (Big Little Lies). The official logline for the Hulu adaptation of the novel, per Variety, reads:
“It takes place at a boutique health-and-wellness resort that promises healing and transformation as nine stressed city dwellers try to get on a path to a better way of living. Watching over them during this ten-day retreat is the resort’s director Masha, a woman on a mission to reinvigorate their tired minds and bodies. However, these nine ‘perfect’ stranger have no idea what is about to hit them.”
Levine, who most recently directed Long Shot with Seth Rogen (This Is the End, Pineapple Express) and Charlize Theron (Monster, Mad Max), will direct all eight episodes for the series’ first season. Hulu plans to release Nine Perfect Strangers sometime next year in 2021.
The show reunites some of the same team responsible for the HBO adaptation of Big Little Lies. It is being co-written by David E. Kelley (Goliath), John Henry Butterworth (Ford v. Ferrari) and Samantha Strauss (The End, The Wrong Girl), while both Kelley and Butterworth will also act as co-showrunners.
Executive producers include Levine alongside Bruna Papandrea (Gone Girl, Wild), Steve Hutensky (The Nightingale, Queen America) and Jodi Matterson (Not Suitable for Children, Little Monsters) for Made Up Stories, Kidman and Per Saari (The Family Fang, Trespass) for Blossom Films, Kelley, Butterworth and McCarthy.