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On Location: Nicole Kidman & Reese Witherspoon move to California to tell #BigLittleLies #book2movie

Monterery Penninsula, California

Image via Wikipedia

Confirmation. Big Little Lies, the mini-series based on Liane Moriarty’s sharply funny book, will take place in Northern California not Sydney as written. The limited series produced by and starring Nicole Kidman & Reese Witherspoon along with Shailene Woodley is the story of three mothers of young children whose lives unravel to the point of murder. 




The HBO series also stars Alexander Skarsgård, Laura Dern, James Tupper, Adam Scott, Zoë Kravitz and Kathryn Newton.

First, Im annoyed. It seems like American production companies are always yanking stories away from their original settings vis a vis The Girl on the Train, now set in NYC rather than its original English locale. 

Second, Im kinda thrilled. The section of the California coastline where the series is currently filming is one of the most beautiful settings in the world. Period. Unlike New York, unlike L.A., the Monterey Bay peninsula—the star best known for Play Misty For Me—hasnt been seen nearly enough on film. If Big Little Lies cant be made in Australia by Australians, then for me, this is as good as it gets. 


Lovers Point Park, Monterey Peninsula



According to OnLocationVacation.com:

“They are going to be filming various seaside settings all around the Monterey Peninsula, so this time the Monterey Peninsula in general gets the spotlight,” said Karen Nordstrand, director of film production in Monterey County.

“It’s a good size production. There will be probably about 150 crew members coming in, which is really exciting from an economic impact situation,” Nordstrand added. “It means a lot of people with per diems spending their money on their own, eating out in our restaurants, staying in our hotels.”

The movie’s base camp is setup at Lovers Point Park with production signs pointing to trailers and other vehicles that reads “BLL”. It has also been confirmed Big Little Lies will film on the Monterey Harbor and along the Pacific Grove coast on Tuesday, Jan. 26.


Can’t you imagine Celeste in this setting?Carmel Highlands 

Image via CaliforniaBeaches.com

Filming has already taken place at Fisherman’s Wharf and will move to Pebble Beach and Carmel Highlands before wrapping up next weekend.


Fisherman’s Wharf, Monterey Bay 

(image via MontereyBay.com)

What do you think? Are you irritated or looking forward to seeing the story now set in California? And what do you make of the gorgeous mommies? Any of you drag your kids to school wearing shoes like that? Lucky Shailene Woodley, who plays the young single mother Jane, is the only one wearing comfortable clothes. Granted, that may not be how she sees it. Those other mothers look mah-velous!


My take on the book: Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty