Ellen Page is to join the Netflix series of Tales of the City (Photo: @ellenpages | Instagram)
Netflix has commissioned a new, ten-episode season of Tales of the City. The show is based on the books by Armistead Maupin and are based around the lives of the residents of a boarding house in San Francisco. The original stories featured a raft of LGBTI characters.
Tales of the City first appeared on TV in 1993, produced by UK broadcaster Channel 4. PBS aired the show in the US. Showtime produced further series in the US in 1998 and 2001.
Laura Linney took the role of Mary Ann Singleton and Olympia Dukakis played Anna Madrigal, the owner of the boarding house at 28 Barbary Lane.
Netflix has announced it has commission a new ten-part series, with Linney and Dukakis reprising their roles. Ellen Page will join the cast as Shawna (Mary Ann’s daughter). Working Title TV and NBCUniversal International Studios will produce the series.
Four decades of Tales of the City
Armistead Maupin is one of the best-known gay authors in the world. Tales of the City first appeared as an ongoing serial in the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper in the late 70s. The first book was published in 1978. A further eight novels have been published over the past four decades.
Maupin and Linney will act as Executive Producers of the new series.
‘I couldn’t be more excited about this new brand-new incarnation of Tales. It’s set in present-day San Francisco with all the joys and complications that might suggest for the residents of 28 Barbary Lane,’ said Maupin in a press statement.
‘Mrs Madrigal’s tenants, both old and new, will be entangled in delicious new adventures and ever-expanding possibilities for love.’
Original Tales of the City director Alan Poul will returns to direct and executive produce.
‘For me, the opportunity to come back to a series I started work on 25 years ago is the homecoming of a lifetime,’ said Poul. ‘There’s never been a better moment to reignite Armistead’s timeless take on family and community, and I’m thrilled to be collaborating with such a brilliant mix of old friends and new.’
In a posting on Instagram, Page said she was ‘soooo grateful to be involved’ with the new series.
The series will be shot later this year and will debut on Netflix in 2019.
