Julia Roberts to star in Maria Semple TV adaptation

Julia Roberts is starring in Annapurna Pictures' TV adaptation of Maria Semple's second novel Today Will be Different, published this autumn by Weidenfeld & Nicolson.

Roberts will play the lead role of Eleanor Flood, also the central character in the book, with Semple attached to write the adaptation for television, according to Semple's publisher. 

Semple will collaborate with American film producer and founder of Annapurna Pictures Megan Ellison and executive Sue Naegle, former president of HBP Entertainment, on the project.

The book, from the author of the Baileys prize-shortlisted Where'd You Go, Bernadette (Orion), is about a dysfunctional Seattle yoga mum called Eleanor Flood who decides today is the day she will tackle the little things and be her best self - from initiating sex with her husband to taking a poetry and yoga class and dropping her son off for school. But in spite her best laid plans, a different future unfolds.

Annapurna Pictures is already working on a feature film adaption of Semple's novel Where'd You Go, Bernadette. It will be directed by Richard Linklater and, according to the Hollywood Reporter, producers are in talks with Cate Blanchett to star.