EXCLUSIVE: Hulu’s Margaret Atwood adaptation of The Testaments has found its first director.
Emmy-nominated The Handmaid’s Tale and Fargo helmer Mike Barker will direct the first three eps and also EP the high-profile MGM Television-produced series, which has been in the works for a while and is nearing greenlight. Other directors are yet to be revealed.
British director Barker has helmed 12 eps of Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale, recognized with two Emmy noms. His other credits include ITV hit Broadchurch, Fargo and David Duchovny-starring Prime Video thriller Malice, which launches later this year.
Bruce Miller’s Testaments series is one of the hottest TV shows percolating at present. The Handmaid’s Tale sequel has cast Presumed Innocent‘s Chase Infiniti as one of the three leads, joining Ann Dowd, who had been expected to reprise her Emmy-winning role as Lydia, and Lucy Halliday (Blue Jean). We understand cameras will roll soon in Canada.
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The Testaments takes place in the dystopian theocracy of Gilead more than 15 years after the events of The Handmaid’s Tale. The story follows the lives of three women, Aunt Lydia (Dowd), Agnes (Infiniti) and Daisy (Halliday), whose fates become intertwined as they uncover the secrets of Gilead and the resistance against its regime.
The 2019 book was hugely successful and went on to win the Booker Prize with Bernardine Evaristo’s Girl, Woman, Other.
The Testaments is executive produced by Miller, Barker, Warren Littlefield and Steve Stark. MGM Television is the studio.
Barker is repped by CAA, Independent Talent, and Jackoway Austen Tyerman Wertheimer Mandelbaum Morris Bernstein Trattner Auerbach Hynick Jaime LeVine Sample & Klein.