At a time when it's seemingly all been roses, remixes and romance for Reba McEntire, the country legend shared some bad news with Taste of Country Nights, On Demand. The Fried Green Tomatoes TV series McEntire was expected to star in and executive produce for NBC isn't happening.
"It just kind of went away, unfortunately," McEntire told Taste of Country Nights' Evan Paul. "We were right in there in the running and they passed on it."
Prior reports had McEntire playing the role of present-day Idgie Threadgoode, who was played by Mary Stuart Masterson in the 1991 film. The modernization of the Fannie Flagg novel was expected to take the Southern charm we loved in the original film and center it on the lives of descendants of the original characters. Idgie was to return back to the Whistle Stop Cafe after several years and be greeted by a changed town, a life-changing secret and an estranged daughter.
Read More: 'Fried Green Tomatoes' Cast: Where Are they Now?
The 1991 film adaptation has become a Southern classic over the years. Masterson starred alongside Kathy Bates, Jessica Tandy, Mary-Louise Parker and Cicely Tyson in the story of an unhappy housewife (Evelyn Couch) who befriends an old lady (Ninny Threadgoode) in a nursing home and listens to the stories of Ninny's sister-in-law, Idgie. Tandy earned herself an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress for the role of Ninny Threadgoode and Flagg and co-writer Carol Sobieski received a nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.
McEntire has plenty else going on without the series getting the green light, including upcoming Lifetime holiday film Christmas in Tune.
"What I've learned from Fried Green Tomatoes is you'd better have lots of balls in the air and plates spinning, because you never know which one is going to go through," McEntire said. "Yeah, we're working on a lot of different projects. Hopefully, fingers crossed, one of them will go through."
