Made Up Stories (company)


Made Up Stories is a film & television development and production company founded in 2017 by producer Bruna Papandrea that champions women on and off the screen. The company has offices in Los Angeles and Sydney.

History

In 2012, Bruna Papandrea co-founded Pacific Standard with actress Reese Witherspoon, a production company focusing on creating films made by and about women. Their first two projects at Pacific Standard were Gone Girl and Wild, both adapted from books whose rights were acquired before publication. Both films were released in 2014, receiving commercial success and extensive accolades. The company had finished production on Hot Pursuit, by the time the first two pictures were released.
In 2016, Papandrea and Witherspoon announced that they were ending their partnership, though they would continue to work on the projects that were in the middle of production, including the HBO series Big Little Lies which was received 16 Primetime Emmy Award nominations and won eight, including Outstanding Limited Series.
Papandrea launched Made Up Stories in January 2017 to carry on her mission in championing female filmmakers, adapting female-written novels and creating stories featuring multi-faceted female characters. The company is also committed to inclusivity in less-acknowledged departments behind-the-scenes such as transportation teams and gaffers. Papandrea has expressed intent to start a foundation, Made Up Solutions, to provide opportunities for women from low socio-economic and diverse backgrounds.

Upcoming projects

On film side, Made Up Stories has adapted The Dry based on the book by Australian novelist Jane Harper for release in August 2020. The book won numerous international awards and has sold more than 1 million copies worldwide. The film is directed by Robert Connolly and stars Eric Bana. The company is also in post-production on upcoming drama film Penguin Bloom, directed by Glendyn Ivin, based on the book of the same name by Bradley Trevor Greive. The film stars Naomi Watts, Andrew Lincoln, and Jacki Weaver.
On the television side, Made Up Stories produced the upcoming HBO miniseries The Undoing debuting in October 2020. The series stars Nicole Kidman, Hugh Grant, Donald Sutherland and Edgar Ramirez, is written and produced by David E. Kelley, and directed by Susanne Bier. It is based on the novel You Should Have Known by Jean Hanff Korelitz. The company also produced the upcoming thriller drama series Tell Me Your Secrets, created by Harriet Warner, and starring Lily Rabe, Amy Brenneman, and Hamish Linklater. Made Up Stories in pre-production on Nine Perfect Strangers, based on the book by Liane Moriarity, for Hulu. The series, written by David E. Kelley, stars Nicole Kidman and Melissa McCarthy; and in pre-production on the Netflix series, Pieces of Her based on the book by Karin Slaughter, and featuring an all-female creative team including director Minkie Spiro and executive producers Lesli Linka Glatter, Charlotte Stoudt and Bruna Papandrea. The show stars Toni Collette and Bella Heathcote
The company is also developing other projects including the film adaptation of the thriller novel As Long As We Both Shall Live by JoAnn Chaney, the television adaption of The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart based on the debut novel from Australian writer Holly Ringland, the adaptation of the historical epic The Lost Queen by Signe Pike for television, the short story collection Roar by Cecelia Ahern, a TV series based on the Jessica Knoll novel The Favorite Sister, a limited TV series on Tina Brown based on her book The Vanity Fair Diaries, a six-episode series adaption of the novel Anatomy of a Scandal by Sarah Vaughan for Netflix with 3Dot Productions' Liza Chasin, a feature film adaptation of the fantasy book The Stepsister by Jennifer Donnelly with Lynette Howell Taylor's 51 Entertainment, the multi-generational novel The Last Anniversary by Liane Moriarty, a TV adaption of Christina Baker Kline's upcoming book The Exiles, a TV show based on Greer Macallister's Woman 99 with Nina Dobrev, among many others.

Productions

Films

Television Series