With reboots all the rage and a zombified Pride and Prejudice hitting the big screen next year, perhaps it was only a matter of time before the rework of another beloved literary classic got underway.

Louisa May Alcott's 1868 novel Little Women is no stranger to an adaptation or 10, but a new TV series is set to give the four March sisters a somewhat unexpected setting, "banding together to survive" on the dystopian streets of Philadelphia, according to Deadline.

The site reports that the script has been bought and put in development by American network The CW, owned by CBS and Warner Bros, and is a "hyper-stylised, gritty adaptation" of the much-loved book. 

It will see Jo, Meg, Beth, and Amy unravelling a conspiracy and "trying not to kill each other in the process".

The script comes from writer Alexis Jolly, a former creative consultant on The Ellen Degeneres Show. The original novel, which was published in two volumes in 1868 and 1869, followed the March sisters' transition to womanhood as they lived in poverty during the US Civil War.

The 1994 film version is perhaps the best known adaptation, featuring Winona Ryder as Jo, Claire Danes as Beth and Kirsten Dunst as Amy, as well as Susan Sarandon as their mother Marmee. But there have been several film and TV versions - including two anime series - over the years. Just this March, another film remake was touted, with Sony in talks with director Sarah Polley.

Given the author admitted "I do not enjoy writing moral tales for the young, I do it because it pays well", and resolutely refused to bow to readers who demanded she marry independent Jo off to Laurie "as if that was the only aim and end of a woman's life", we imagine Alcott would be pretty happy with the idea of the March sisters storming their way through a terrifying urban dystopia.

Images: Rex Features