The Trailer For The New Six-Hour Margaret Atwood Miniseries Is Here

Let the murder mystery begin.
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Netflix

If Anna Paquin with a gaping wound on her head and a look of sheer terror on her face is any indication, the new Margaret Atwood adaptation on Netflix is going to be thrilling.

The streaming service released the trailer for “Alias Grace” on Friday, teasing what will be a six-hour miniseries based on the iconic author’s 1996 work of historical fiction, hitting screens on Nov. 3.

It’s a true-crime tale plucked from 1840s Canada, chronicling the murders of a wealthy farmer and his mistress and the ensuing investigation into their deaths. The titular Grace Marks is eventually convicted of the heinous crimes, along with fellow servant James McDermott. But, in a tale told backward and sideways by Atwood, Grace’s persistent reputation as a conniving “murderess” is complicated by reports of her gentle demeanor, placid time in prison and the lurid affairs that haunted her former home. 

In the Netflix version of the story, written by Sarah Polley and directed by Mary Harron, Sarah Gadon stars as Grace, with Anna Paquin playing the mistress, Nancy.

We have a long time to wait for the next season of “The Handmaid’s Tale,” so six hours of an Atwood-style murder mystery will definitely do.

Watch the “Alias Grace” trailer below:

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Before You Go

10 Sci-Fi And Fantasy Books To Explore
(01 of10)
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If thereâs anything we sci-fi fans relish, itâs a good end-of-the-world plot. Chaos induced by a worldwide flu-like epidemic? Sign us up! Massive asteroid? Sure! Stephensonâs take on the apocalypse focuses more on how humanity would respond politically, making for an epic volume worth embarking on. A few survivors remain after the world as we know it ends, and they form seven disparate societies, comprised of seven distant races. For 5,000 years, these groups form their own new traditions. Stephensonâs story centers on the moment in their histories when they finally return to Earth. (credit:William Morrow)
(02 of10)
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Like Millhauser, Link humorously fuses the real with the imagined, skirting the line between the two. But, while Millhauser is chiefly concerned with collective responses to strange phenomena, Linkâs stories are more personal and psychological -- she throws the reader head-first into her weird worlds, peopled with ghost hunters and evil twins. (credit:Random House)
(03 of10)
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Readers who enjoyed Divergent, or whoâve taken the Myers-Briggs personality test more times than necessary, will relate to Robert Charles Wilsonâs latest novel, which divides all of humanity into 21 faction-like sectors based on both personal and social preferences. The process of being placed into an affinity is a little more involved than putting on a sorting hat, and because there are so many options, each affinity is tailored perfectly to its membersâ interests. Sounds ideal, right? Nope. Naturally, the affinities begin to take issue with one another, and war looms on the horizon. (credit:Tor)
(04 of10)
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Liuâs another decorated science-fiction writer. His bevy of Hugo and Nebula awards speak to his world-crafting abilities, on full display in this first book of a new trilogy. Those looking to fill the void left by maddening wait times between Game of Thrones books can occupy themselves with this fantasy novel centering on political relationships in a world comprised of evil emperors and deceitful gods. (credit:Saga)
(05 of10)
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Ned Beaumanâs book takes its name from the hottest new recreational drug, which is less innocuous than it may seem; it very well may be the side effect of a corporate conspiracy responsible for missing citizens and bizarre animal behavior. Raf, a 20-something with time on his hands no thanks to a sleeping disorder, stumbles into the throes of pharmaceutical mayhem, falling in love along the way. (credit:Knopf)
(06 of10)
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Jesse Ballâs book is another thatâs tough to classify. The premise -- a government agency that clears citizensâ minds upon request, sending them through a detailed treatment built to recover from trauma -- is science-fiction in the way that âEternal Sunshineâ is. Ball relies on mythical technologies to tell a story that is, at its heart, a romance tarnished by tragedy. In doing so he raises questions about the value of memories, both pleasant and painful, as tools to shape who we are. (credit:Pantheon)
(07 of10)
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Like Ishiguroâs novel, Millhauserâs short stories arenât squarely science fiction, but they are peopled with phantoms, mermaids and other mythical creatures. Also like Ishiguro, Millhauser is attempting to characterize hard-to-define social phenomena by personifying town gossip and rituals. A man buys a strange surface cleaner from a door-to-door salesman and soon becomes transfixed with his reflection when viewed through newly polished mirrors. A mermaid washes ashore in a small town, sparking a new fashion trend among citizens. Millhauserâs wry humor adds a layer of cheeky self-awareness to the âX-Filesâ-like events he relates. (credit:Knopf)
(08 of10)
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A contemporary sci-fi stalwart, Delanyâs won a bunch of Hugo and Nebula Awards. This collection jumps back to his earliest works and runs the gamut of sci-fi and fantasy themes. In They Fly at Ãiron, a society of winged, god-like humanoids watch over warring villages in a story that couldâve been plucked straight from Greek mythology. In The Ballad of Beta-2, a âStar Trekâ-like mission goes awry, and a budding academic tries to make sense of it all. Thereâs something for everyone in Delanyâs collection of short novels. (credit:Penguin)
(09 of10)
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Of Alan Turingâs myriad contributions to computer science, his test for differentiating between human speakers and computers programmed to speak like humans is probably discussed the most. Itâs a fun philosophical question: what about our use of language makes us human? And, if a computer were to pass Turingâs test, what would this imply about the value of interpersonal communication? Louisa Hall brushes against these questions in her subtle saga Speak, which spans centuries of humans attempting to communicate with one another, hoping their messages donât get lost in translation. Turing features as a cast member, as he pens letters to distant relation. Heâs joined by a Silicon Valley tech bro and a Puritan woman traveling to America, in a narrative that attempts to explain what we talk about when we talk about talking. (credit:Ecco)
(10 of10)
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The breath of an aging dragon casts a spell on a row of Arthurian villages, and their residents canât seem to recall the details of their own history. In an attempt to relearn their past and find their missing son, an old couple sets off on a journey where they run into valiant knights, mad dogs and a mysterious boatman who carries the sick and dying to a peaceful, nearby island. Less science-fiction oriented than Ishiguroâs past books, the novel nevertheless wields fantastical elements on a quest to understand the function of collective, societal memories. (credit:Random House)