Cue the sound of angels. Something is finally going right.
Are you sitting down? Variety has reported that Netflix is developing a 10-episode "present-day continuation of San Francisco author Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City," complete with the transcendent Laura Linney and Olympia Dukakis returning to their former roles.
Many of us plotted San Francisco lives and loves through the window of Tales, beginning with its launch in the San Francisco Chronicle in 1976, and then through books, multiple miniseries, and even a musical which was just performed in a concert production in New York in March. Maupin's stories of the city's modern coming-of-age are must-reads and must-watches. 24 years after the PBS miniseries aired, they shall emerge in a new form on Netflix and will probably change everything for the better. Fingers crossed.
Maupin will serve as the series' executive producer and Alan Poul, who directed the first three Tales of the City miniseries, will direct. The Hours Michael Cunningham has already written the first script. Mary Ann Singleton, Michael Tolliver, and Anna Madrigal will all return.
Maupin has been dropping hints that this series was in the works. According to Logo, on a book tour last year, he told the crowd, "How great would it be if people found out Mary Ann Singleton and Anna Madrigal were soon headed back to 28 Barbary Lane, and they found out from gossip heard in the Castro bookstore?"
It would be SO GREAT, Armistead.
SF Weekly's Peter Kane includes this must-know slice of info in his post on the subject:
And I once bartended at A.C.T. during the run of a play that the amazing, formidable Olympia Dukakis starred in. Her theatrical entrance required her to use the main elevator and we were told not to make eye contact with her, as she was not to be disturbed while in character. In other words, don't mess, Netflix!
The first Tales of the City miniseries was released on PBS in 1994, followed by More Tales of the City in 1998 and Further Tales of the City in 2001. So many tales, now more time.
