Paramount+ has handed a straight-to-series order to Discretion, an eight-episode legal thriller that will star Nicole Kidman and Elle Fanning and be produced by A24. The streamer said the project was won in a competitive bidding process and will begin production in 2026, marking one of the first original commissions under its new leadership team.
The series centers on Lenny, a summer associate at a prestigious Dallas law firm, who stumbles onto a lattice of nondisclosure agreements concealing a darker reality. When she realizes she signed the same paperwork, her investigation collides with the interests of the firm’s most powerful partner, Sharon, upending their mentor-protégé relationship and forcing a reckoning over who controls secrets and at what cost.
The show is adapted from a short story by bestselling author Chandler Baker, who will write and executive produce. Susannah Grant joins as executive producer, with Kidman and Fanning also serving as executive producers via their respective banners. Additional executive producers include Per Saari, Dakota Fanning, Brittany Kahan Ward, Joe Hipps and Jordan Cerf. The order underscores a push by management to stock the service with star-led, exportable dramas following corporate changes earlier this year.
The pickup continues a busy period for both leads. Kidman has stacked a slate that spans prestige series and features across multiple platforms, while Fanning is coming off recent high-profile turns and is set to reunite with Kidman on another book-to-series adaptation. Industry reporting frames Discretion as a strategic early win for the platform’s rebuilt originals group, capitalizing on A24’s pipeline and on a premise that blends workplace intrigue with timely questions about contract silence and power.
Paramount+ describes Discretion as launching on the service after filming next year, with casting beyond the two leads to be announced. The Dallas setting signals a shift from coastal legal backdrops common to the genre, while the focus on NDAs positions the narrative to traverse corporate, political and personal fault lines that have been central to recent real-world debates over accountability and consent.
