ABC/Alysse GafkjenReba McEntire has been cast in the lead role in a TV adaption of Fried Green Tomatoes. 

Variety reports that Norman Lear, whose production company Act III Communications co-produced the 1991 Oscar-nominated film starring Kathy Bates, Mary Stuart Masterson and Jessica Tandy, will produce the series for NBC, with Reba set to star and serve as an executive producer. 

The country star has been cast in the lead role of Idgie Threadgoode, sister-in-law of Ninny Threadgoode, a nursing home resident who strikes up an unlikely friendship with housewife Evelyn Couch in the original film.  

Taking place in modern day, the plot finds Idgie returning to the fictional town of Whistle Stop, Alabama after 10 years away to discover that the beloved Whistle Stop Cafe is now floundering. She also faces a family crisis with an estranged relationship with her daughter, in addition to learning a life-altering secret. 

Fannie Flagg, author of the 1987 novel on which the movie is based, will also be an executive producer on the series.

By Cillea Houghton 
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