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Hulu has announced that their adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale has added its male lead with Joseph Fiennes (Shakespeare in Love) as Commander Fred Waterford. A founding father of Gilead and powerful, high-ranking official, Commander Waterford rules the household where Offred (Elisabeth Moss) is a handmaid.
Adapted from Margaret Atwood’s influential and acclaimed novel, The Handmaid’s Tale is the story of life in the dystopia of 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 produced by MGM Television and marks the first collaboration for an original series between Hulu and MGM. The series will go into production later this year and will premiere on Hulu in 2017.
The series is executive produced and written by Bruce Miller, with Warren Littlefield, Daniel Wilson, Fran Sears, and Ilene Chaiken serving as executive producers. Atwood is a consulting producer for the series.
