Netflix’s ‘Alias Grace’ Is Here To Satisfy Your Margaret Atwood Fix

With The Handmaid’s Tale enjoying full-on cultural phenomenon status, Margaret Atwood adaptations are the hottest thing in Hollywood right now. It’s great timing then for Netflix, who are getting in the Atwood business with an adaptation of the legendary Canadian author’s 1996 book Alias Grace. But unlike The Handmaid’s Tale, dystopian fiction that could totally never happen in the real world (or, could it?), Alias Grace is a period piece that also happens to be based a true story. The six-hour miniseries stars Canadian actress Sarah Gadon as Grace Marks, an Irish immigrant who arrives in Canada and begins working for a wealthy farmer named Thomas Kinnear. But when Kinnear and his housekeeper are brutally murdered, it is Marks and a stable boy, played by Kerr Logan, who are accused of the crimes.

Netflix, which made Alias Grace with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, has released the first official stills from the production, which give you a sense of the period detail and the tiny cell that Marks is held in while she presumably stands trial. Anna Paquin, who also stars in this, is even wearing a bonnet, which, thanks once again to Atwood, is so in right now. Alias Grace was written by Canadian mega-talent, Sarah Polley, and directed by Mary Harron, best known for her work directing American Psycho. Alias Grace debuts on Netflix this fall.