Nicole Kidman Teams With a Pen15 Alum For Her Next HBO Thriller

Nicole Kidman may believe movie theaters are where magic happens, but she’s returning to television for her latest project — starring in a high-profile limited series adaptation of Leïla Slimani’s novel The Perfect Nanny for HBO.

Maya Erskine, best known for co-creating and starring in Hulu’s coming-of-age comedy Pen15, will create and write the series in addition to co-starring opposite Kidman. Kidman’s had quite the run with HBO in the past few years, starring and executive producing Big Little Lies (for which she earned an acting and producing Emmy) and The Undoing opposite Hugh Grant. Like both of those series, The Perfect Nanny has a mystery-crime element.

The 2016 best-selling novel, which was originally published in French, was inspired by the real-life murder of Upper West Side siblings Lucia and Leo Krim by their nanny, Yoselyn Ortega, in 2012. Per Deadline, in the series, a seemingly perfect nanny goes to work for a couple with two young children, but her helpful personality eventually deteriorates into something sinister.

While she’s best known for Pen15, in which she played an unforgettably awkward teenager alongside on-screen bestie Anna Konkle, Erskine is also currently busy in production on Amazon’s Mr. and Mrs. Smith reboot, which she’ll star in opposite Donald Glover.

Kidman, meanwhile, will be seen next in Lulu Wang’s drama series Expats on Amazon, which she stars in and will also executive produce. She’ll also be starring in Netflix’s upcoming rom-com A Family Affair opposite Zac Efron and Joey King this November, and is currently in production on Lioness, a Paramount+ original series she’s executive producing and starring in alongside Zoe Saldana.