Canada’s Neshama develops limited series on life of Anne of Green Gables author

CBC and Netflix’s Anne with an E ran for three seasons

Toronto-based producer Neshama Entertainment is developing a limited drama series about the life of Lucy Maud Montgomery, the Canadian author who wrote the classic coming-of-age novel Anne of Green Gables.

The project, titled Lucy Maud, is being written by Susan Coyne (Daisy Jones & The Six, North of North) and stars Megan Follows, who played Anne Shirley in the 1985 Anne of Green Gables miniseries for Canadian pubcaster CBC, and Amybeth McNulty, who starred in CBC and Netflix’s Anne with an E. The latter ran for three seasons from 2017 to 2019.

Neshama, whose credits include The Way Home (Hallmark Channel), is developing the project alongside LMM Productions, with producers including Mary Young Leckie, Megan Follows and Edwina Follows.

US-based Fox Entertainment Global, whose parent entity Fox Entertainment owns a stake in Neshama, will handle international distribution if the project moves ahead.

The series will examine Montgomery’s rise from a writer on Prince Edward Island to an internationally recognised author, focusing on the pressures of fame, creative ambition, family life and public scrutiny.

The producers said the drama will explore “darker, more surprising truths” about Montgomery’s personal life that contrast with the pastoral image associated with her best-known work.

“Everyone knows Anne Shirley. Almost nobody knows Lucy Maud Montgomery. The truth is far more complicated, far more fascinating and long overdue,” said executive producer Leckie.

Brook Peters, senior VP of sales and business development at Neshama, added: “Lucy Maud Montgomery built a world that belongs to everyone – and audiences from Tokyo to Toronto have never let go of it. Now we get to show them something thrillingly unexpected inside that world.”