Kate Winslet has signed on for Mildred Pierce, a miniseries adaptation of the James M. Cain novel that Todd Haynes is writing and directing.

According to Variety, sources said HBO is the lead contender to get the series, but pay web sources said no deal has been struck.

Cain's tale was famously turned into the 1945 film that won Joan Crawford an Oscar for the lead role of a bored housewife who gets into the restaurant business, an enterprise that leads to backstabbing, romance and murder.

The development is surprising considering that Winslet is looking to star in the miniseries when she's at the top of her game, having won the Oscar for The Reader and also toplining Revolutionary Road. But the success of Grey Gardens for actresses Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange shows that a pay web like HBO creates a large audience for a picture that would be hard-pressed to find one as a theatrical release.