MJ Photos/Variety/Shutterstock; Broadimage/ShutterstockKristy Thomas has a very famous mom. E! News has learned Clueless star Alicia Silverstone has joined the cast of Netflix's The Baby-Sitters Club as Elizabeth Thomas-Brewer. Royal Pains star Mark Feuerstein will play her love interest, Watson Brewer.
The live-action adaptation of the beloved book series follows the friendship and babysitting adventures of Kristy Thomas, Mary Anne Spier, Claudia Kishi, Stacey McGill and Dawn Schafer.
The series, which is set in Stoneybrook, Connecticut, is now in production in Vancouver, Canada.
GLOW veteran Rachel Shukery is executive producer and showrunner. Michael De Luca, Lucy Kitada and Naia Cucukov will also executive produce. Broad City's Lucia Aniello is directing and also an executive producer. Series author Ann M. Martin is on board as a producer on the 10-episode first season.
"I'm amazed that there are so many passionate fans of The Baby-Sitters Club after all these years, and I'm honored to continue to hear from readers—now grown, who have become writers, editors, teachers, librarians, filmmakers—who say that they see a reflection of themselves in the characters of Kristy and her friends. So I'm very excited about the forthcoming series on Netflix, which I hope will inspire a new generation of readers and leaders everywhere," Martin said in a statement when the series was announced.
The Baby-Sitters Club originally debuted as a four-book series in 1986 and became one of the most successful children's book series with over 200 books licensed in more than 20 territories.
This isn't the first TV series based on the book series. In 1990, a 13-episode series debuted on HBO and Nickelodeon. A movie based on the novels followed in 1995 starring Schuyler Fisk, Rachel Leigh Cook and Larisa Oleynik.
No premiere date for Netflix's version has been announced.
"The themes of The Baby-Sitters Club still resonate 30 years after the original book series was released and there has never been a more opportune time to tell an aspirational story about empowering young female entrepreneurs," Melissa Cobb, vice president of Kids & Family at Netflix, said in a statement. "Together with Ann M. Martin and the team at Walden Media, our ambition is to contemporize the storylines and adventures of this iconic group of girlfriends to reflect modern-day issues."
The Baby-Sitters Club has more than 180 million copies in print to date.