Witherspoon and Kidman option Moriarty novel for film

Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman have optioned the film rights to Liane Moriarty's novel Truly Madly Guilty (Michael Joseph).

Witherspoon and her production company, Pacific Standard, have teamed up with Nicole Kidman and her company Blossom Films to produce the film.

Truly Madly Guilty was published last month in hardback by Michael Joseph and tells both the "extraordinary and ordinary story" of how our lives can change in a single moment and is centred on a neighbourhood barbecue and the fateful events that follow.

Jonathan Lloyd, Moriarty’s UK agent at Curtis Brown, said: “I am thrilled that there is now an opportunity for fans of the film to discover the magic of Liane Moriarty’s writing and if they haven’t already done so, to go out and acquire all her books.”

Witherspoon and Kidman’s companies are also in postproduction on a limited TV series based on Moriarty’s Big Little Lies (Michael Joseph) for HBO. The series was adapted by David E Kelley and directed by Jean-Marc Vallee and stars Witherspoon, Kidman, Shailene Woodley, Laura Dern, Zoe Kravitz and Alexander Skaarsgard.

Moriarty is the bestselling author of seven novels, including international bestseller The Husband’s Secret (Penguin), which has sold more than 2m copies worldwide, according to the publisher.