Taylor Sheridan isn’t known for Yellowstone alone. Outside of that huge franchise of shows for Paramount+, he has other series such as Tulsa King and Mayor of Kingstown that have nothing to do with the ranching business. And Sheridan’s latest for the network, CIA drama Lioness, could be his big success, especially with the addition of Oscar-winning actress Nicole Kidman.
According to Variety, Kidman, who was already aboard as exec-producer, will step in front of the camera for an acting role in Lioness. She joins a cast led by Laysla De Oliveira and includes Zoe Saldana. Kidman will play the “CIA’s Senior Supervisor who has had a long career of playing the politics game. She must juggle the trappings of being a woman in the high-ranking intelligence community, a wife that longs for the attention she herself can’t even give and a mentor to someone veering suspiciously close to the same rocky road she’s found herself on.”
In short, expect Kidman to have a sizable role. You don’t get someone like Kidman then relegate her to the sidelines for long.
Also in the cast are Jill Wagner, Dave Annable, LaMonica Garrett, James Jordan, Austin Hébert, Hannah Love Lanier, Stephanie Nur, and Jonah Wharton.
This might be a Sheridan show that I actually watch because it sounds like it’s in similar territory as Sicario, which remains his best movie. The series is based on a real-life CIA program and centers on “Cruz Manuelos (Laysla De Oliveira), a rough-around-the-edges but passionate young Marine recruited to join the CIA’s Lioness Engagement Team to help bring down a terrorist organization from within.”
Unsurprisingly, Kidman has found the same acclaim in television as she has in film. Her previous small screen credits in Top of the Lake, Nine Perfect Strangers, The Undoing, and Big Little Lies have earned her numerous accolades.
