AMAZON STUDIOS GREENLIGHTS SERIES "THE EXPATRIATES" FROM NICOLE KIDMAN'S BLOSSOM FILMS

Based on the best-selling novel by Janice Y.K. Lee and scripts from award-winning screenwriter Alice Bell, the ongoing series will be available exclusively on Amazon Prime Video in over 200 countries and territories

SANTA MONICA, Calif., July 28, 2018 - Amazon Studios today announced it has greenlit the drama series The Expatriates from Nicole Kidman's Blossom Films. Based on the best-selling novel by Janice Y.K. Lee, and award-winning screenwriter Alice Bell (The Beautiful Lie), The Expatriates will premiere exclusively on Amazon Prime Video in over 200 countries and territories.

"After announcing our recent first look deal with Nicole and Blossom Films, we are thrilled to kick off this relationship by bringing this very popular novel from author Janice Y.K. Lee to Prime Video," said Jennifer Salke, Head of Amazon Studios. "The story weaves an addictive tapestry that follows a group of complex women and their lives as outsiders in Hong Kong. It's a compelling exploration of the strength of these women as they persevere through struggles with marriage, career, parenting and unimaginable loss."

Nicole Kidman commented: "I'm so thrilled about the Blossom-Amazon collaboration. The Expatriates is just the beginning of our shared goal in making delicious stories with something meaningful to say about the world."

Set against the sensational backdrop of "The Vertical City" of Hong Kong, The Expatriates is a drama series that explores the vibrant lives of a close-knit expatriate community: where affluence is celebrated, friendships are intense but knowingly temporary, and personal lives, deaths and marriages are played out publicly - then retold with glee. There's Margaret, a world-renowned American architect struggling with the unwavering suspicion that something could be wrong with her latest project - an ambitious skyscraper already gracing the Hong Kong skyline - until an unexpected event upends her life; Mercy, a Korean-American college graduate with a questionable past seeking a new life, who quickly finds herself embroiled in an unforgivable scandal; Hilary, a British expat who yearns for a child despite her uncertain marriage, then dabbles in local customs and make-believe identities in a deliberate attempt to change her fate; Tammy, a high-flying alpha-expat who is blindsided when her husband's Chinese second family appears on her doorstep; Barbara, whose decadent lifestyle belies a ticking clock; Franny, an Australian expat loyal to anyone she's having lunch with, who faces an existential crisis; and Olivia, a Chinese local socialite who experiences a humiliating loss of status. This is a delicious world of unusual alliances, heartfelt truths and mystifying superstitions; a place where fortunes are made and lost, families sundered and brought together, identities made and then remade in pursuit of an extraordinary life.

The series is executive produced by Kidman and Per Saari for Blossom Films and Theresa Park for POW! Productions, with Lee serving as Consulting Producer.

About Amazon Studios

Amazon Studios creates original television series which premiere exclusively on Amazon Prime Video which is available globally in over 200 countries and territories. This year, Prime Video will premiere a number of original series, including the highly anticipated Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan starring John Krasinski, Homecoming from creator Sam Esmail and starring Julia Roberts and Bobby Cannavale, The Romanoffs from nine-time Emmy Award winner Matthew Weiner, and a third season of The Man in the High Castle.

About Blossom Films

Blossom Films, created by Nicole Kidman and Per Saari, executive-produced the Emmy and Golden Globe-winning limited series Big Little Lies for HBO. In 2010, they produced the feature film Rabbit Hole, which earned Nicole Kidman both Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations, as well the film The Family Fang. Blossom Films is now filming the second season of Big Little Lies, directed by Andrea Arnold. Among Blossom's development titles are an adaptation of the literary sleeper hit The Silent Wife, an adaptation of best-seller Reconstructing Amelia, and an adaptation of off-Broadway vampire hit Cuddles. With their Big Little Lies co-producers Reese Witherspoon and Bruna Papandrea, Blossom Films is also adapting Liane Moriarty's novel Truly Madly Guilty into a limited series. Blossom's next project is David E. Kelley's limited series The Undoing, which will go into production in 2019 and star Kidman.

About Alice Bell

Alice Bell Alice Bell's first screenplay was the very dark and multi-award winning feature film SUBURBAN MAYHEM which was invited to compete in the Un Certain Regard section of the the Cannes Film Festival in 2006. She won the Australian Writers Guild Award for Best Original Screenplay that year. Since then, Alice has gone on to write and script produce high-end television dramas in Australia. Her credits include THE SLAP (won the Australian Writers Guild Award for Best Drama 2012), PUBERTY BLUES S1&2 (won the AACTA award for Best Drama 2013) and most recently a contemporary adaptation of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, THE BEAUTIFUL LIE (nominated for 9 AACTA awards 2016) of which she was also the co-creator.

About Theresa Park

Theresa Park is the principal of POW! Productions, a film and television production company. She was a producer on The Best Of Me (Relativity, 2014) and The Longest Ride (Fox 2000, 2015), and executive produced Deliverance Creek (Lifetime, 2014) before partnering with Peter Safran and Nicholas Sparks on The Choice (Lionsgate, 2016). Park is currently teaming with Cinereach to develop and produce a feature film adapted and directed by award-winner Kogonada (Columbus) based on the short story Saying Goodbye to Yang, by Alexander Weinstein, to which she acquired the rights. As the founder of Park Literary & Media, a full-service literary agency in NYC with expertise in brand development and cross-platform promotion for authors and content creators, she works extensively in the nexus between publishing and film / TV. On the book publishing side, PLM's clients include NYT best-selling authors Nicholas Sparks, Debbie Macomber, Emily Giffin, Janice Y.K. Lee, Taylor Jenkins Reid and Cecilia Ahern, among others.