The Office' gets an Australian reboot with a female boss, Fe

An Australian adaptation of the popular television series "The Office" is now being produced, this time with a female lead, more than 20 years after British comedian Ricky Gervais made obnoxious middle manager David Brent famous around the world. According to British broadcaster the sources, Australian comic Felicity Ward will portray Hannah Howard, the managing director of packaging business Flinley Craddick, the Australian equivalent of Brent, played by Michael Scott in the popular U.S. series. Since its premiere in 2001, "The Office" has received several honors and spawned local adaptations in nations including Chile, Israel, India, and Poland. The Australian series is the thirteenth adaptation and the first with a female protagonist.

The eight-part series, which is described in a press release, follows Ward's character as she shifts into "survival mode" after the corporate headquarters of the corporation closes down her branch and forces everyone to work from home. Ward is most known for her performances on Australian comedy and game shows, as well as in the television miniseries "Wakefield" and the movie "The Inbetweeners 2." She has also given performances at comedy festivals, and on Thursday she tweeted that she had been hiding her new job for four months. Bunya Entertainment, Amazon Studios, and BBC Studios collaborated to make the Australian version.

Filming will start in Sydney in June, and it will last for eight weeks. Gervais, who co-created "The Office" with Stephen Merchant, expressed his enthusiasm for the Australian adaptation in a statement. I'm interested to see how they deal with a contemporary David Brent since office politics have evolved somewhat in the last 20 years, he remarked. It's "Australia's turn," according to BBC Studios ANZ general manager and creative production director Kylie Washington after so many versions of the popular program have been produced elsewhere. We believed that the world was ready for a sympathetic, imperfect woman to run "The Office" Australia's packaging empire. Beginning in 2024, the new series will be shown in 240 nations.