You may already know about Netflix's planned new miniseries Alias Grace, which evolved from a planned cinematic Margaret Atwood adaptation by Sarah Polley. The cast is increasing in number, with an eclectic group signing on including David Cronenberg (making one of his occasional excursions in front of the camera) Kingsman's Edward Holcroft, Kerr Logan, Rebecca Loddiard and Paul Gross.
Polley is overseeing the series, but Mary Harron will be in the director's chair. Atwood's 1996 novel is based around the true story of Grace Marks (Sarah Gadon) and James McDermott, two servants in the household of one Thomas Kinnear (Gross), who were convicted of his murder, and that of his housekeeper Nancy Montgomery (Anna Paquin), in Canada in 1843. Focusing, obviously enough, on Grace, the book is told through the letters of a (fictional) psychologist investigating her claims of amnesia, and through the voice of Grace herself. Not a conventional murder mystery in any sense, Grace's guilt or innocence isn't the point, with Atwood using the case to explore 19th-Century notions of gender and class.
The cameras are set to roll in Toronto and elsewhere in Ontario starting this week and the result should hit Netflix next year.