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Speaker 1: From The Australian. I'm Claire Harvey and this is the

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Speaker 1: weekend edition of The Front. If you worked at a

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Speaker 1: publishing house and we're on ma hunt for your next

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Speaker 1: literary smash. Books exploring themes like domestic violence, intergenerational trauma, grief,

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Speaker 1: depression and loss might make you think pass ensemble cast

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Speaker 1: interwoven narratives. It all sounds a bit too hard. But

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Speaker 1: if Leanne Moriarty, who does explore those themes and loves

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Speaker 1: a huge cast, pen those books that you just passed on,

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Speaker 1: well you just cost your publisher twenty million book sales,

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Speaker 1: denied TV audiences around the world hits like Big Little

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Speaker 1: Lies and Nine Perfect Strangers. And you also denied weekend

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Speaker 1: listeners of The Front an engaging episode about Moriarty's latest

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Speaker 1: book adaptation, The Last Anniversary. And so if you had

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Speaker 1: your interview with Nicole Kidman.

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Speaker 2: I have what was that Like? She's fascinating, like a really,

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Speaker 2: really down to earth person.

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Speaker 1: This is The Australian's journalist Bianca far Marcus, who's written

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Speaker 1: about the Last Anniversary in today's review section. Nicole Kidman

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Speaker 1: an icorn of Australian acting. She can be polarizing, some

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Speaker 1: people don't like her style. Some people absolutely worship her.

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Speaker 1: But there's no doubt she's become a very powerful figure

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Speaker 1: in the business, hasn't she. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely. And it's funny you bring up the divibe because

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Speaker 2: people my generation absolutely love her. She's our baby girl,

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Speaker 2: She's our everything. We will claim her forever. Are you

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Speaker 2: new to Monterey? Yeah, we just moved to her.

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Speaker 1: You're a Benn Lomon. Big Little Lies was Leonne Moriarty's

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Speaker 1: first book to be optioned for TV. The series starred

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Speaker 1: Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon, but behind the camera, Kidman

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Speaker 1: and Witherspoon were also series executive producers, alongside another Australian,

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Speaker 1: Bruna pap Andrea.

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Speaker 2: Like I've called these women the most powerful book club

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Speaker 2: in the world, because it seems like they all just

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Speaker 2: picked up one of Leanne Moriarty's books one day and said,

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Speaker 2: you know what, for the next fifteen years, we're going

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Speaker 2: to pump out these large scale, incredible TV shows, and

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Speaker 2: they have.

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Speaker 1: Kidman told Bianca Big Little Lies was recast as a

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Speaker 1: California story because HBO, who bought the series, said the

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Speaker 1: show could reach a far bigger audience if it was

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Speaker 1: set overseas, and Leanne Moriarty agreed because HBO was proposing

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Speaker 1: to keep the story intact, but Kidman says she promised

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Speaker 1: Moriarty they'd set some future adaptations here in Australia a musha.

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Speaker 1: After Big Little Lies, Kidman and Pap Andrea's production companies

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Speaker 1: Blossom Films and Made Up Stories, respectively, teamed up to

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Speaker 1: greenlight another Moriaty TV adaptation, Nine Perfect Strangers, which start

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Speaker 1: Kidman again, We're gonna get you well.

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Speaker 2: And now you have the Last Anniversary, which is a

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Speaker 2: coup in its own right, because there are two key

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Speaker 2: differences with this one. Number one, it's the first show

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Speaker 2: they've ever actually done in this partnership that's filmed on

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Speaker 2: Australian soil, includes an all star Australian cast, but also

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Speaker 2: does not change the book from Australian characters. And now

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Speaker 2: you've got this like great oka humor splintered between just

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Speaker 2: the beauty and the enigma of the Hawkesbury River. But

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Speaker 2: there's also a very noticeable absence from Nicole Kidman on

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Speaker 2: the credits.

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Speaker 1: Oh that's intriguing.

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Speaker 2: Why When I asked her, she said, quite frankly, you know,

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Speaker 2: I can't be an everything, and she said with Blossom Films,

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Speaker 2: and it's fifteenth year now. It has been her ambition

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Speaker 2: since she started the production company to be able to

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Speaker 2: open up roles and tell other women, this is a

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Speaker 2: great character, go for it. And I think it's very

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Speaker 2: inspiring because someone who has risen to the top. Now

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Speaker 2: not only is you know, producing these programs and bringing

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Speaker 2: things home to Australian creating an industry here, but she's

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Speaker 2: actively saying I don't want it to be successful just

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Speaker 2: because I'm in it. I want it to be successful

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Speaker 2: in its own respect.

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Speaker 1: Now, Leanne Moriarty, let's talk about her. She is probably

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Speaker 1: Australia's most successful author. She's certainly Australia's most successful female

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Speaker 1: author of the moment. She lives in the northern suburbs

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Speaker 1: of Sydney with her husband and kids, but pumps out

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Speaker 1: these books that are phenomenally successful around the world. You know,

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Speaker 1: and you could say that they follow a formula. I

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Speaker 1: suppose there's a group dynamic of some kind, whether it's

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Speaker 1: a fam or a group of friends, and then a

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Speaker 1: series of interweaving narratives that resolve themselves in a very

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Speaker 1: satisfying way. I interviewed her a few years ago, and

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Speaker 1: she talked really proudly about her commercial instincts. You know,

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Speaker 1: she said, I could write literary fiction, which is, you know,

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Speaker 1: books that don't have a satisfying resolution and are considered

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Speaker 1: more highbrow and don't sell many copies. But she said,

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Speaker 1: I want millions of people to read my books. I

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Speaker 1: want to be a best seller every time, and so

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Speaker 1: that's what I do.

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Speaker 2: And she has done it. I mean, she's just released

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Speaker 2: her tenth book, right, nine of them are considered best sellers.

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Speaker 2: I mean, the one that's currently out has been on shelves,

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Speaker 2: so I think, you know less than six months, so

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Speaker 2: give it some time. But when I hear this criticism

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Speaker 2: of things being you know, chick lit or too consumable,

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Speaker 2: or you know, things women watch with each other and

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Speaker 2: giggle at sleepovers, I have to think to myself, how

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Speaker 2: many times have I sat through a god awful Steven

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Speaker 2: Sigar movie with my father? Oh?

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Speaker 1: I know what you're thinking, Mine's bigger than yours. Right,

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Speaker 1: it isn't not fair.

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Speaker 2: Threw it away, all right, Come and get some.

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Speaker 1: I get.

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Speaker 2: The four hundredth rendition of a Star Wars episode with

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Speaker 2: my brother.

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Speaker 1: Hi, I'm holding for general Huggs. This is hucks. You

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Speaker 1: and your friends are doomed. We will wipe your filth

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Speaker 1: from the galaxy.

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Speaker 2: And they have been fixated on it, even if it

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Speaker 2: is the most basic or useless storyline on the planet.

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Speaker 2: But then you're going to turn around and criticize a

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Speaker 2: woman with this winding and edge of your seat mystery

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Speaker 2: that does ultimately come to a conclusion, which I think

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Speaker 2: is hard to do.

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Speaker 1: In her books, Leanne Moriarty has somehow struck a balance

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Speaker 1: between tackling hot button zeitgeist issue whose like trauma, grief,

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Speaker 1: and domestic violence, while being unashamedly entertaining and commercial. The

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Speaker 1: Last Anniversary is the latest Moriarty book to be adapted

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Speaker 1: for the small screen. The book is Moriarty's second book,

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Speaker 1: published in two thousand and four, ten years before Big

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Speaker 1: Little Lives hit bookstands around the world, So it's a

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Speaker 1: twenty plus year old story, but it's about very contemporary issues.

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Speaker 2: The Last Anniversary it deals with this very complex family mystery.

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Speaker 2: We're basically two girls in the nineteen thirties discover the

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Speaker 2: newborn baby and the parents of the child their neighbors missing.

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Speaker 2: So Jack and Alice Munroe disappeared randomly, and then they

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Speaker 2: have baby Munroe, which they eventually raise themselves and bring

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Speaker 2: into the family as their sister. Fast forward to the

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Speaker 2: present day, the family has subsequently capitalized on that mystery.

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Speaker 2: It's now a major tourist attraction on the Hawksbury, which

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Speaker 2: I think is phenomenal. Like that, if you're going to

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Speaker 2: have that kind of twisted story at the center of it,

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Speaker 2: you should make it funny and have this, you know,

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Speaker 2: kind of the microcosm that develops out of that is

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Speaker 2: all the relatives are loosely linked to the kind of

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Speaker 2: main story, but within that they kind of explore their

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Speaker 2: own struggles with fertility. I find is very much the

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Speaker 2: underlying theme. So there's the central figure who can't find

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Speaker 2: the love of her life, is obsessed with finding the

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Speaker 2: love of her life and can feel the biological clock ticking.

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Speaker 2: Another one of the stories is a really probably one

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Speaker 2: of the most shocking depictions I've ever seen of postpartum depression,

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Speaker 2: which makes for a compelling watch because there are moments

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Speaker 2: when the show is so funny and then you have

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Speaker 2: this like tear jerking moment. Bruno pap Andrea summed it

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Speaker 2: up herself perfectly that of every single show she's ever made,

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Speaker 2: this is the first she feels like her twelve year

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Speaker 2: old daughter and her mother will love watching together. It's

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Speaker 2: just an amazing intergenerational tale.

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Speaker 1: The fact The Last Anniversary was made in Australia is

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Speaker 1: largely thanks to Nicole Kidman's old friend and one of

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Speaker 1: the first backers of her early acting career, TV power

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Speaker 1: play Out, Brian Walsh, the longtime boss of Foxtel who

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Speaker 1: passed away in twenty twenty three. It was Walsh who

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Speaker 1: fought off rival platforms to get the rights to The

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Speaker 1: Last Anniversary for Binge and Foxtel.

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Speaker 2: He was in love with this story. He wanted it

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Speaker 2: made in Australia. He wanted to bring Leanne Moriarty's tales

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Speaker 2: back where they belong and back and really champion the

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Speaker 2: fact that Australia has this amazing capacity and amazing landscape

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Speaker 2: to be able to bring these stories to a global audience.

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Speaker 1: Kidman says telling Australian stories in Australian accents isn't just

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Speaker 1: good for the industry, it's good for the country.

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Speaker 2: Nicole Kidman said they grew up watching Australian TV I

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Speaker 2: grew up watching Australian films. That is what made me

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Speaker 2: want to become an actress and it is important for

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Speaker 2: people to see.

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Speaker 1: Biancher Far Marcus's story about The Last Anniversary is live

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Speaker 1: now at the Australian dot com dot au. The Last

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Speaker 1: Anniversary starts on Binge and Foxtel on March twenty seven.

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Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us this week on the front. Our

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Speaker 1: team is Jasper Leek, who edited and produced this episode,

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Speaker 1: Kristin amiot Leat, Sammaglue, Stephanie Coombs, Joshua Burton, Tiffany Dimack

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Speaker 1: and me Claire Harvey