NETFLIX is taking on Tolstoy with “Anna Karenina,” its first-ever Russian original series. The new drama is a modern-day retelling of Leo Tolstoy’s classic novel “Anna Karenina.” Svetlana Khodchenkova (“Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”) will play the titular lead.

In the updated Netflix version, Anna Karenina is a socialite and wife of the soon-to-be governor of St. Petersburg, who enters a life-changing love affair with Vronsky, the dashing heir of an aluminum empire. Their affair threatens the delicate balance of their familial bonds and social relationships.

“Anna Karenina” is considered one of the greatest novels of all time. It begins with one of the most oft-quoted lines in literature: “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”

The sprawling epic has been adapted multiple times in multiple languages for film and television, including a 2012 feature from Joe Wright starring Keira Knightley as Anna Karenina and Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Vronsky.

Roman Kantor, the writer behind hit Russian series “To the Lake,” which airs on Netflix worldwide, will write the modern-day adaptation.

“To bring Anna Karenina into 21st-century Russia and to simultaneously introduce her to the whole world in her own language (and many others) through the miracle of Netflix is a dream come true for me,” said Kantor. “Quite literally so, as the idea for this TV series came to me in a dream and I have been chasing it ever since.”

Shooting will take place on location in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

(SD-Agencies)