EXCLUSIVE: Playground Entertainment, the company behind Damian Lewis period drama Wolf Hall, is to adapt acclaimed South Korean graphic novel Moms as a television series.

Moms, which comes from Yeong-shin Ma, tells the story of Lee Soyeon and her two best friends, three Korean women in their 50’s struggling with the loneliness of middle age. Sick of suffering life’s injustices, they begin to reclaim their own lives with reckless abandon, leading to sexual adventures, infighting, and a daring challenge to the social hierarchy at work that risks their livelihoods.

It tells of how they can no longer bear the dead weight of their partners or the endless grind of menial jobs where their bosses control everything, down to how much water they can drink.

Although Soyeon divorced her husband years ago after his gambling drove their family into bankruptcy, she’s found herself in another tired and dishonest decade-long relationship with Jongseok, a slimy waiter at a nightclub. Her friend Myeong-ok is having an illicit affair with a younger man, and her other pal Yeonjeong, whose husband suffers from erectile dysfunction, has her eye on an acquaintance from the gym. Bored with conventional romantic dalliances, these women embrace outrageous sexual adventures and mishaps, ending up in nightclubs, motels, and even the occasional back-alley brawl.

The book, which recently won the prestigious Harvey Award for Best International Book, comes from author and illustrator Ma, who realized, while living at home in his 20s, that he knew very little about his mother beyond her role as a mother mom and asked her to write down thoughts about her life in a notebook.

Playground Entertainment, run by former HBO Films boss Colin Callender, is currently working on upcoming Starz drama series Dangerous Liaisons as well as Peacock and Channel 4 drama series co-production The Undeclared War.

Scott Huff and David Stern oversaw the acquisition of the book and lead development and executive produce for Playground.