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CBC is going back to Green Gables.
The network announced Tuesday that it has greenlit a new straight-to-series adaptation of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s classic children’s novel from Breaking Bad alum Moira Walley-Beckett.
Anne hails from Walley-Beckett, Miranda de Pencier and Alison Owen (Temple Grandin) as well as Debra Hayward’s U.K.-based Monumental Pictures. The series will begin production in the spring for a CBC-TV debut in 2017. The network has ordered eight episodes.
Anne is described as a coming-of-age story about an outsider who fights for acceptance, for her place in the world and for love. The drama revolves around a young orphaned girl who, after an abusive childhood spent in orphanages and the homes of strangers, is mistakenly sent to live with an elderly spinster and her aging brother.
Over time, 13-year-old Anne will transform their lives and eventually the small town in which they live, with her unique spirit, fierce intellect and brilliant imagination. While the new series will follow a similar storyline to the book that millions of readers around the world know and love, it will also chart new territory. Anne and the rest of the characters in and around Green Gables will experience new adventures reflecting timeless issues, including themes of identity, sexism, bullying, prejudice and trusting oneself.
“Anne’s issues are contemporary issues: feminism, prejudice, bullying and a desire to belong. The stakes are high and her emotional journey is tumultuous. I’m thrilled to delve deeply into this resonant story, push the boundaries and give it new life,” Walley-Beckett said.
Walley-Beckett, De Pencier, Owen and Hayward will serve as showrunners. For Walley-Beckett, the series marks her follow-up to Starz’s Flesh and Bone, which was conceived as a scripted drama but ultimately became a closed-ended mini.
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