EXCLUSIVE: Netflix is turning to a 2005 book in search for its next YA hit. The streamer has given a straight-to-series order to Prep, an adaptation of Curtis Sittenfeld’s bestselling debut novel. The half-hour project, which had been developed internally, comes from Nicole Taylor, head writer and executive producer of Netflix’s limited series One Day — also based on a popular book — and Gloria Sanchez Productions.
Prep is a coming-of-age story about scholarship girl Lee Fiora’s high school years at Ault, a prestigious New England boarding school, and her journey to navigate friendship, crushes and class as a fish out of water among her privileged, confident classmates.
BAFTA TV Award winner Taylor is writer and showrunner. She executive produces with Will Ferrell, Jessica Elbaum, and Alix Taylor for Gloria Sanchez Productions and Sittenfeld. A writers room is slated to open in January.
“Prep is my all time favourite novel and I have longed to adapt it for the entire twenty years since I first read it and found myself reflected uncannily back,” Scottish native Taylor said. “There is no more acute depiction of the introspective, bookish self-conscious adolescent girl and no more truthful or excoriating take on the perils of social mobility than in Curtis Sittenfeld’s beautiful first novel. I am overjoyed to be adapting for Netflix.”
The series green light by Netflix comes almost 22 years after Prep was published by Random House in January 2005 and 10 years after HBO took a stab at adapting it as a comedy series from 30 Rock‘s Colleen McGuinness and Game of Thrones‘ Carolyn Strauss, which did not move forward. While utilizing a half-hour format, Netflix’s Prep is not a comedy. (Taylor’s drama One Day also had shorter episodes, ranging from 19 to 38 minutes each.)
“I’m overjoyed that Netflix is making Prep as a TV show — the 22-year wait was worth it!,” Sittenfeld said. “Alix Taylor at Gloria Sanchez has guided the project forward with such intelligence and enthusiasm, and Nicole Taylor’s scripts are truly brilliant. Nicole’s adaptation makes me understand my own novel, and myself, better. My 51-year-old self can’t wait to see what they do with this story of privilege, longing, and teen angst.”
Prep joins Netflix’s slate of upcoming YA series that includes The Sticks, The Body, Poser, and Sid & Zoey. Since Since H1 2023 when Netflix began releasing comprehensive viewership information, YA titles have generated over 10.4B global views on the streamer, with two of them, Wednesday and Stranger Things, occupying four spots on Netflix’s Top 10 most popular English-language series list, #1, #3, #4 and #6.
Taylor won a BAFTA TV Award for her three-part BBC series Three Girls. She also wrote the BBC miniseries The Nest and the movie Wild Rose starring Jessie Buckley, the latter of which she adapted to the stage, with an off-Broadway production opening later this month. Taylor is repped by UTA, Curtis Brown Group, and Ziffren Brittenham.
Sittenfeld’s other novels include Romantic Comedy, which is being adapted as a movie by New Line and Hello Sunshine; Rodham, which was previously in development as a TV series at Hulu; The Man of My Dreams; American Wife; Sisterland and Eligible. She is repped by WME.
