Amazon Orders Drama ‘The Expatriates’

Amazon Studios has greenlit the drama series “The Expatriates” from Nicole Kidman’s Blossom Films. Based on the best-selling novel by Janice Y.K. Lee and screenwriter Alice Bell (“The Beautiful Lie”), “The Expatriates” will premiere exclusively on Amazon Prime Video in over 200 countries and territories.

The logline: Set against the sensational backdrop of “The Vertical City” of Hong Kong, “The Expatriates” is a drama series that explores the vibrant lives of a close-knit expatriate community: where affluence is celebrated, friendships are intense but knowingly temporary, and personal lives, deaths and marriages are played out publicly—then retold with glee. There’s Margaret, a world-renowned American architect struggling with the unwavering suspicion that something could be wrong with her latest project — an ambitious skyscraper already gracing the Hong Kong skyline — until an unexpected event upends her life. Then there is Mercy, a Korean-American college graduate with a questionable past seeking a new life, who quickly finds herself embroiled in an unforgivable scandal; Hilary, a British expat who yearns for a child despite her uncertain marriage, then dabbles in local customs and make-believe identities in a deliberate attempt to change her fate; Tammy, a high-flying alpha-expat who is blindsided when her husband’s Chinese second family appears on her doorstep; Barbara, whose decadent lifestyle belies a ticking clock; Franny, an Australian expat loyal to anyone she’s having lunch with, who faces an existential crisis; and Olivia, a Chinese local socialite who experiences a humiliating loss of status. This is a delicious world of unusual alliances, heartfelt truths and mystifying superstitions; a place where fortunes are made and lost, families sundered and brought together, identities made and then remade in pursuit of an extraordinary life.

The series is executive produced by Kidman and Per Saari for Blossom Films and Theresa Park for POW! Productions, with Lee serving as Consulting Producer.