Margaret Atwood's dystopian classic sci-fi novel The Handmaid's Tale has already been adapted once for the screen, via the 1990 movie which featured a Harold Pinter script. Now US streaming channel Hulu has ordered a new drama series based on the book, and set Mad Men/Top Of The Lake's Elisabeth Moss to star.
Atwood's story is set in an unspecified, dark future where a totalitarian society known as Gilead (once part of the United States) has embraced a twisted religious fundamentalism as the way to combat environmental chaos and a dropping birthrate. The leaders consider women to be property of the state, and fertile women are highly valued while being treated essentially as sexual slaves. Moss' Offred is the "handmaid" at the commander's estate and is part of the effort to repopulate the world.
She has to find a way to survive in a world of cruel leaders, domestic servants and spies, while also searching for the daughter that was taken from her. It's the sort of story that still has resonance in today's religiously split world and hopefully a TV series will offer the length and depth to explore it in ways a film can't.
Bruce Miller wrote the initial script and will be a producer alongside Daniel Wilson, who helped shepherd the original film to screens. There's no sign yet on whether UK audiences will get to see this one, as Hulu doesn't have an outlet here. But MGM is the studio behind it, so perhaps it'll show up.