It’s been announced, but only sort of confirmed, that Divergent actress Shailene Woodley will be joining the cast of Big Little Lies, a limited series on HBO. The deal with Shailene Woodley has not been officially closed, but all the formalities are said to be finalized sometime this week. Woodley will star alongside Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon in the HBO drama. Kidman announced today at India’s Hindustan Times Leadership Summit that Woodley would be joining the all-star cast. Both Kidman and Witherspoon will executive produce Big Little Lies as well as star in it.
The series is an adaptation of Liane Moriarty’s 2014 New York Times best-seller by the same name and is described as a dark comedy. The TV series and novel are about three mothers who meet at a local school. They all have what seem to be the perfect life until their secrets and dark histories begin to come to light and they are driven to a breaking point. David E. Kelley who wrote Boston Legal, Ally McBeal, and The Crazy Ones will be writing the script for Big Little Lies. Kelley will also serve as an executive producer alongside Kidman and Witherspoon.
This will be Woodley’s return to television since her breakout role in ABC Family’s The Secret Life of the American Teenager which ran for five seasons. Big Little Lies will also be Woodley’s largest TV role to date. Woodley’s film credits include starring in the Divergent films based on Veronica Roth’s best selling young adult fiction series, The Fault in Our Stars (based on the young adult novel by John Green), The Descendants, and Snowden which will premiere next year. It seems that Woodley has a thing for films and TV series adapted from best-selling novels.
HBO landed the drama back in May, but the cabler was not the only one interested in the limited series. HBO won Big Little Lies after a bidding war with Netflix.
A premiere date has not been set for Big Little Lies, but considering the all-star cast, it sounds like a definite must-watch.