Julia Roberts to Star in HBO Limited Series ‘Today Will Be Different’

HBO has made a development deal for Annapurna Television’s limited series adaptation of Maria Semple’s novel Today Will Be Different. Julia Roberts will produce and star in the project, with Semple writing the adaptation.

Taking place over a single day, the book is “a rollicking portrait of one woman’s fumbling but valiant attempt to navigate the knotty perils and sly grace of modern life,” according to Annapurna Television.

Roberts will produce the series through her Red Om Films banner, with Semple and Annapurna’s Megan Ellison and Sue Naegle on board as executive producers. Semple has worked in television before, writing for Arrested Development and Mad About You.

Other Annapurna projects include adult animated series Amberville for Amazon and The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, a Western anthology written and directed by the Coen Brothers.

Michael Malone

Michael Malone, senior content producer at B+C/Multichannel News, covers network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television. He hosts the podcasts Busted Pilot, about what’s new in television, and Series Business, a chat with the creator of a new program, and writes the column “The Watchman.” He joined B+C in 2005. His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Playboy and New York magazine.