Last week, Hulu announced the upcoming premiere of a ten-episode TV series, The Handmaid’s Tale, based on the award-winning dystopian sci-fi novel of the same name by Margaret Atwood.

Atwood will serve as consulting producer of the series as it is created, executive produced, and written by Bruce Miller, alongside executive producers Daniel Wilson, Fran Sears, and Warren Littlefield.

Elizabeth Moss, the Golden Globe Award-winning actress of Top of the Lake and Mad Men, will be Offred, a handmaid trying to survive in the totalitarian, male-dominated, and dystopian regime of the Republic of Gilead—in what was once part of the United States.

Atwood had this to say about the series, according to Hulu’s press release: “I am thrilled that MGM and Hulu are developing The Handmaid’s Tale as a series, and extra thrilled that the very talented Elizabeth Moss will be playing the central character. The Handmaid’s Tale is more relevant now than when it was written, and I am sure the series will be watched with great interest. I have read the first two scripts and they are excellent; I can hardly wait to see the finished episodes.”

Craig Erwich, Senior Vice President and Head of Content at Hulu, agrees that the book’s relevance has increased. “Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale was seen as ahead of its time and we look forward to bringing it to life on our platform,” he said.

The adaptation marks the first collaboration for an original series between Hulu and MGM Television; it will go into production later this year, and premiere on Hulu in 2017.

Related News: Guardian writer Devon Maloney argues that while the series is “exciting news,” the “promising feminist vehicle will be helmed by a white man,” which is, to say the least, problematic. “It won’t matter if Miller hires only women to work on the series;” Maloney adds, “that would be great, but it doesn’t change the fact that at the end of the day, all of them would answer to a white man, however benevolent. And isn’t that the exact problem The Handmaid’s Tale seeks to address? Why tell dystopian stories if not to learn something from them?” Read the rest of the opinion piece at The Guardian.

Photo Credit: AP Photo.