New Anne Frank movie to air on PBS

BOSTON, Oct. 5 (UPI) -- A new adaptation of "The Diary of Anne Frank" is scheduled to premiere in the United States this spring on PBS, the network said.

The two-hour film will air as part of the Masterpiece program series April 11, which is Holocaust Remembrance Day.

"The Diary of Anne Frank" gives a unique account of life in hiding under Nazi terror in World War II from the perspective of a teenage Jewish girl. Since its publication more than 50 years ago, it has become the world's most widely read work of non-fiction after the Bible, the network said.

"Every generation needs to look at Anne from its own perspective," Masterpiece Executive Producer Rebecca Eaton said in a statement Monday. "In this new Masterpiece adaptation, viewers will see Anne as a bright, charming, and difficult teenager -- and as the gifted writer she was destined to become."

Newcomer Ellie Kendrick portrays Anne, while Iain Glen and Tamsin Greig play Anne's father and mother, Otto and Edith Frank.

For this new adaptation, screenwriter Deborah Moggach received permission to use passages of the diaries previously excised by the family. To add to the film's authenticity, the production team painstakingly recreated the annex where the Frank family lived for two years, the network said.