Alias Grace is coming to Netflix in November, and the streaming service released the first trailer on Friday. The six-episode limited series is based on a 1996 historical novel by Margaret Atwood, the author of the novel that’s the basis for Hulu’s hit series The Handmaid’s Tale.
Alias Grace tells the story of Grace Marks (Sarah Gadon), an impoverished young Irish immigrant and domestic servant in Upper Canada (present-day Southern Ontario) who — along with stable hand James McDermott (Kerr Logan) — finds herself accused and convicted of the infamous 1843 double murder of her employer Thomas Kinnear (Paul Gross) and his housekeeper Nancy Montgomery (Anna Paquin). Simon Jordan (Edward Holcroft), a doctor researching the case, begins to take a personal interest in Grace when he can’t reconcile the mild-mannered woman he’s getting to know with the person who committed these brutal murders. Zachary Levi also stars.
The limited series is written by Canadian film and TV icon Sarah Polley and directed by American Psycho’s Mary Herron, who is also Canadian. It will air on CBC in Canada. It’s Netflix’s second CBC co-production after Anne With an E, which is also a period piece adapted from a classic novel.
