Hulu has given a straight-to-series order for drama The Handmaid’s Tale from MGM Television based on Margaret Atwood’s bestselling novel, with Elisabeth Moss (Top of the Lake) attached to star.

Ilene Chaiken wrote the original script that was bought by Hulu, but she could no longer render services when she became showrunner on Fox’s Empire. The 100‘s Bruce Miller is listed by Hulu as creator, writer and executive producer, with Daniel Wilson, Fran Sears (Sophisticated Gents) and Warren Littlefield (Fargo) also executive producing. Atwood will serve as consulting producer for the series, which will debut its first season on Hulu in 2017. The project marks the first collaboration for an original series between Hulu and MGM.

Golden Globe winner Moss will play Offred, a Handmaid trying to survive in the male-dominated totalitarian regime of Gilead. Enslaved by a society that values only her fertility, Offred must find a way to survive in a world of oppression and swift, cruel punishments.

Adapted from Atwood’s novel, The Handmaid’s Tale is set in the dystopian Gilead, a totalitarian society in what was formerly part of the United States. Facing environmental disasters and a plunging birthrate, Gilead is ruled by a twisted religious fundamentalism that treats women as property of the state. As one of the few remaining fertile women, Offred is a Handmaid in the Commander’s household, one of the caste of women forced into sexual servitude as a last desperate attempt to repopulate a devastated world. In this terrifying society where one wrong word could end her life, Offred navigates between Commanders, their cruel Wives, domestic Marthas, and her fellow Handmaids – where anyone could be a spy for Gilead — all with one goal: to survive and find the daughter that was taken from her.



The Handmaid’s Tale is scheduled to go into production later this year.