The Hollywood star is teaming up with her Big Little Lies and The Undoing collaborator.
We couldn’t get enough of HBO’s Big Little Lies when it hit our screens for the first time in 2017, and now Nicole Kidman is adapting another one of Liane Moriarty’s novels for the small screen with Nine Perfect Strangers.
With The Undoing‘s David E. Kelley reuniting with Kidman to run the show, Nine Perfect Strangers stars a line-up of acclaimed actors as city dwellers heading to a 10-day retreat at Tranquillum House, a health and wellness resort ran by its mysterious Russian director Masha (Kidman).
Judging by the show’s latest trailer, Tranquillum House isn’t exactly the place that would get a write-up in Goop, with the resort’s new residents seen digging their own graves, panicking in the woods and breaking down on the edge of a cliff all while Masha creepily watches them via CCTV cameras.
With Melissa McCarthy, Luke Evans, Regina Hall and other stars making up the cast of intriguing resort guests, Nine Perfect Strangers is set to be gripping thrill ride.
Read on for everything you need to know about Nine Perfect Strangers.
Nine Perfect Strangers release date
The first three episodes of Nine Perfect Strangers will launch on Amazon Prime Video on Friday 20th August, with the remaining five added weekly until the finale on Friday 24th September.
Amazon’s partnership with Kidman’s production was announced in May 2021, securing Nine Perfect Strangers an international home away from Hulu, which remains exclusive to the United States.
“I’m so proud of what we were able to pull together this past year, bringing Nine Perfect Strangers filming to Australia during the global COVID-19 pandemic,” said Kidman.
“Partnering with Melissa McCarthy, working with David Kelley, Liane Moriarty and my producing cohorts again, joining forces with Hulu in the USA and now this, a global distribution deal with my home studio of Amazon.
“The stars have aligned and I am thrilled!”
Nine Perfect Strangers cast
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By this point in her career, Nicole Kidman is used to working alongside all-star casts and Nine Perfect Strangers will be no exception.
The Academy Award winner will take the lead role in the streaming series as the director of a mysterious wellness centre called Tranquillum, where nine guests come to destress but are shocked by what they find.
Kidman’s co-star is Melissa McCarthy, best known for comedy work in the likes of Bridesmaids, Spy and Ghostbusters, but also an Oscar-nominated dramatic performer for 2018 biopic Can You Ever Forgive Me?.
She plays romance novelist Frances Welty, who takes a trip to Tranquillum after admitting that she is “in need of some fixing” and hearing that host Masha can completely transform people.
The other guests include Luke Evans (The Pembrokeshire Murders) as a divorce lawyer, Regina Hall (Black Monday) as a single mother, as well as Melvin Gregg (American Vandal) and Samara Weaving (Bill & Ted Face The Music) as a wealthy but troubled couple.
Michael Shannon (The Shape of Water), Asher Keddie (Stateless), Grace Van Patten (The Meyerowitz Stories) and Bobby Cannavale (Ant-Man) play fellow city-dwellers in need of a retreat, while Manny Jacinto (The Good Place) and Tiffany Boone (The Midnight Sky) play Tranquillum staff members Yao and Delilah.
Nine Perfect Strangers trailer
Amazon Prime Video released its first teaser trailer for Nine Perfect Strangers in June 2021, with its two lead actors Nicole Kidman and Melissa McCarthy taking the spotlight. You can watch the suspenseful teaser below.
Prime Video has since released a full length trailer, revealing more about the holidaymakers at Tranquillium House and its mysterious, slightly ominous, director Masha played by Nicole Kidman.
“You want to get well? You want to heal? Surrender yourself to me,” she says as the group are seen digging their own graves. “I am going to fix you.” I think it’s safe to say this isn’t your typical wellness retreat.
Nine Perfect Strangers plot
Nine Perfect Strangers is a drama series about an unusual health and wellness centre called Tranquillum House, run by a mysterious Russian woman named Masha Dmitrichenko (Kidman).
The reputation of the institution is quite something, with word-of-mouth boasting that Masha invites a very deliberate mix of people to each retreat and supposedly “completely changes” them over the course of their stay.
However, don’t expect your time to be spent lounging by the pool and enjoying the occasional back rub, as the trailer shows things at Tranquillum get very intense – with Masha ominously warning that “sometimes it will be unpleasant”.
The series will follow nine stressed city dwellers as they arrive at Masha’s health-and-wellness retreat that promises healing and transformation. While Masha is on a mission to reinvigorate their tired minds and bodies, “these nine strangers have no idea what is about to hit them,” Prime Video teases.
Is Nine Perfect Strangers based on a book?
Yes! Nine Perfect Strangers is based on the 2018 novel of the same name by Liane Moriarty, who is attached to the television adaptation as an executive producer.
This is Kidman’s second collaboration with Moriarty, who also wrote the book on which Big Little Lies was inspired, so the two have established a strong track record together so far.
Nine Perfect Strangers is available from Amazon as a paperback novel or a Kindle download.
Nine Perfect Strangers premieres on Amazon Prime Video on Friday 20th August. Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide to see what’s on tonight.