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Reba McEntire to star in TV series version of ‘Fried Green Tomatoes’

Country music star Reba McEntire is set to star in a television series based on “Fried Green Tomatoes,” the novel and movie written by Alabama native Fannie Flagg, AL.com reported.

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The series is in the works with NBC, with Norman Lear tapped as the executive producer, Variety reported. Lear was the executive producer for the 1991 movie that starred Kathy Bates, Jessica Tandy, Mary Stuart Masterson, Mary-Louise Parker, and Cicely Tyson.

The show will modernize the storyline and explore the lives of the descendants from the original work, according to The Hollywood Reporter. McEntire will star in the role of Idgie Threadgoode, who returns to Whistle Stop, Alabama, after a decade and must wrestle with a changed town, her estranged daughter, a faltering cafe and a life-changing secret, Variety reported. Masterson played Threadgoode in the movie.

McEntire, 65, will also handle an executive producer role in addition to starring in the series. Flagg will also be an executive producer, according to Variety.

Flagg’s novel, “Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe,” was first published in 1987. The Whistle Stop Cafe was a restaurant inspired by the Irondale Cafe near Birmingham, which was bought by Bess Fortenberry, Flagg’s aunt, in 1932, AL.com reported.

Lear, 98, has had a storied career as a television producer, working on shows such as “All in the Family,” “The Jeffersons,” “Sanford and Son,” “Maude,” “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman,” “Good Times” and “One Day at a Time.”