Laura Dern is getting into the Netflix rom-com game after her “Big Little Lies” co-star Nicole Kidman made her streamer debut with “A Family Affair.”
Dern leads the upcoming Netflix feature “Lonely Planet,” hailing from rom-com master Susannah Grant who previously penned “In Her Shoes,” “28 Days,” and “Ever After: A Cinderella Story.” Grant is best known for writing “Erin Brockovich.” She also wrote and directed “Catch and Release,” “Lessons in Chemistry,” and partnered with Netflix on co–creating “Unbelievable.”
“Lonely Planet” stars Dern in an “Under the Tuscan Sun”-esque premise, swapping continents from Europe instead for Africa. Liam Hemsworth plays Dern’s boy toy turned soulmate, it seems.
The official synopsis reads: “A reclusive novelist (Dern) arrives at a prestigious writer’s retreat in Morocco, hoping the remote setting will unlock her writer’s block. While there, she meets a young man (Hemsworth) and what starts as an acquaintanceship evolves into an intoxicating, life-altering love affair.”
Diana Silvers, Younès Boucif, Adriano Giannini, and Rachida Brakni round out the cast.
Writer/director Grant produces along with Liza Chasin and Sarah Timberman. Brendan Ferguson, Corinne Weber, and Margaret Chernin serve as executive producers.
Dern recently executive produced and starred in “Palm Royale.” She told IndieWire that it was a “dream” come true to “help support a project that would then give artists and female actors a great time to invent” with the series.
She added, “Your collaborators, every single one of them, make radical and valuable investments in the stories you create and in the comedy you create. […] To witness working in a happy place for artists was a gorgeous thing. To be part of feeling like I was one of many people facilitating that opportunity, that felt incredible.”
Dern most likely will also return to “Big Little Lies” for the long-rumored third season, which Kidman confirmed is in the works.
“Just you wait!” Kidman said during a Vanity Fair interview alongside former co-star Reese Witherspoon. “We’re moving fast and furious. And Liane is delivering the book. And we’re in good shape. So the rest is…We need to shut up because there’s this whole thing that you should never talk about something until you’ve done it. Because if you talk about doing it, it’s the dopamine hit of doing it. You feel like you’ve done it. It’s a scientific study.”
“Lonely Planet” premieres October 11 on Netflix. Check out the trailer below.
