Netflix has announced a 10-part original limited series order for Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City, which is expected to start production later this year and debut in 2019.
Academy Award nominee and Golden Globe-winning actress Laura Linney (Ozark, The Big C) and Academy Award and Golden Globe winner Olympia Dukakis (Moonstruck, Sinatra) will reprise their roles as Mary Ann Singleton and Anna Madrigal. Barbara Garrick is also set to return, and additional cast will be announced later.
Armistead Maupin is the author of 11 novels, including the nine-volume Tales of the City, which led to three Tales of the City limited series starring Linney and Dukakis. Alan Poul served as producer of the first three adaptations (Tales of the City, More Tales of the City, Further Tales of the City) which earned a Peabody Award and multiple Emmy Award nominations.
This next chapter, Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City, follows Mary Ann (Linney), who returns home to San Francisco and is reunited with her daughter, Shawna (Ellen Page) and ex-husband Brian, twenty years after leaving them behind to pursue her career. Fleeing the midlife crisis that her picture-perfect Connecticut life created, Mary Ann returns home to her chosen family and will quickly be drawn back into the orbit of Anna Madrigal (Dukakis) and the residents of 28 Barbary Lane.
“I couldn’t be more excited about this 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. Mrs. Madrigal’s tenants, both old and new, will be entangled in delicious new adventures and ever-expanding possibilities for love,” said Maupin.
Showrunner Lauren Morelli added: “The magical, vivid world that Armistead Maupin built in Tales of the City is one that offered so many — particularly the LGBTQ+ community — a home for the first time. For many, Tales was the first time they saw themselves on screen. I am humbled to now find my own home within Tales and to continue telling Armistead’s stories.”
“For me, the opportunity to come back to a series I started work on 25 years ago is the homecoming of a lifetime,” Poul commented. “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.”
Lauren Morelli (Orange is the New Black) serves as showrunner, writer, and executive producer. Armistead Maupin will executive produce along with Linney and Poul, who returns to direct. The project is a Working Title Television and NBCUniversal International studios production for Netflix. Working Title’s Andrew Stearn, Liza Chasin, Tim Bevan, and Eric Fellner will executive produce, with Michael Cunningham serving as consulting producer.
