Reba McEntire to star in Fried Green Tomatoes TV series from Norman Lear and NBC

Jason Kempin/Getty Images; Everett Collection

It's time to head back to the Whistle Stop Café.

A TV series based on Fried Green Tomatoes is in development at NBC, with Reba McEntire attached to produce and star and TV legend Norman Lear also executive producing. The series will be a "modernization" of the 1987 novel and its 1991 film adaptation, following Idgie Threadgoode (McEntire) as she returns to the town of Whistle Stop after a decade away. Upon her return, she must deal with a changed town, her estranged daughter, a faltering cafe, and a life-changing secret.

Jennifer Cecil (Private Practice) will write and executive produce the series, with Fried Green Tomatoes author Fannie Flagg also on board as an EP.

The original novel, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, was published in 1987 to much acclaim. The book follows the friendship between Evelyn Couch, a middle-aged housewife, and Ninny Threadgoode, an elderly woman in a nursing home, who reminisces about her youth in Whistle Stop, Ala., where her sister-in-law Idgie and her friend Ruth ran the titular café. The film adaptation starred Kathy Bates, Jessica Tandy, Mary Stuart Masterson, Mary-Louise Parker, and Cicely Tyson, and earned Oscar nods for Best Supporting Actress (for Tandy) and Best Adapted Screenplay.

Lear, who also executive produced the film, has numerous projects currently in production and development, including the rebooted One Day at a Time series and an animated version of Good Times in the works at Netflix. McEntire, meanwhile, recently released her 33rd studio album, Stronger Than the Truth, which was nominated for Best Country Album at the 2020 Grammys.

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