Orange Is The New Black Gets A July Premiere Date At Netflix

While we're busy counting down the days until Arrested Development premieres, and/or binge-watching Netflix's most recent offering in the way of original content, Hemlock Grove, the streaming video service is lining up a future series. Orange is the New Black comes from Weeds creator Jenji Kohan and today, Netflix has announced that they will debut all thirteen one-hour episodes of the series on Thursday, July 11.

Produced by Lionsgate Television, Orange is the New Black is based on Piper Kerman's best-selling memoir and stars Taylor Schilling (Mercy, Argo) as Piper Chapman, a Brooklyn woman who finds herself incarcerated in a federal penitentiary due to her connections with her longtime friend Alex (Laura Prepon), a drug-runner. Piper must give up her cozy life with her fiancé Larry (Jason Biggs) to pay back her debt to society with a year-long stint in jail. The series is set in the prison where Piper is incarcerated and follows her attempts to acclimate to prison culture. Tayrn Manning, Natasha Lyonne, Kate Mulgrew, Pablo Schreiber, Daniel Brooks and Laverne Cox also star.

The story sounds perfect for Weeds creator Jenji Kohan, who knows a little something about female-led dramas, not to mention a story about a woman going from a comfortable life to a life of crime. Weeds had its lead character exploring her darker side and discovering things about herself that she wasn't aware existed until she found herself inching further and further into a life of crime. While Orange is the New Black sounds a bit more like a story of a woman being punished more for her associations than by her actions, there's also potential for great self-discovery in the character, so we'll have to wait and see how the story plays out when it debuts on Netflix. In the meantime, here are some photos from the series.

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