EXCLUSIVE: Netflix is turning to a 2005 book in search of its next YA hit. The streamer has placed a direct-to-series order at Preparation, an adaptation of Curtis Sittenfeld’s bestselling debut novel. The half-hour project, developed in-house, comes from Nicole Taylor, head writer and executive producer of the Netflix limited series. A day – also based on a popular book – and Gloria Sanchez Productions.
Preparation is a coming-of-age story about scholarship student Lee Fiora’s high school years at Ault, a prestigious New England boarding school, and her journey to navigate friendship, crushes, and class like a fish out of water among her privileged and confident classmates.
BAFTA TV Award winner Taylor is a writer and showrunner. She produces with Will Ferrell, Jessica Elbaum and Alix Taylor for Gloria Sanchez Productions and Sittenfeld. A writers room is expected to open in January.
“Preparation is my favorite novel of all time and I have been wanting to adapt it for the twenty years since I first read it and found myself strangely reflective,” said Taylor, originally from Scotland. “There is no sharper depiction of the introspective, bookish, self-aware teenager and no more truthful or excoriating vision of the perils of social mobility than in Curtis’s magnificent debut novel Sittenfeld. I’m excited to adapt for Netflix.
Netflix’s green light for the series comes almost 22 years later Preparation was published by Random House in January 2005 and 10 years after HBO attempted to adapt it as a comedy series 30 RockThey are Colleen McGuinness and Game of Thrones” Carolyn Strauss, who has not moved forward. While using a half-hour format, Netflix Preparation is not a comedy. (Taylor’s drama A day also had shorter episodes, ranging from 19 to 38 minutes each.)
“I’m delighted that Netflix is Preparation As a TV show, the 22-year wait was worth it!” Sittenfeld said. “Gloria Sanchez’s Alix Taylor guided the project with such intelligence and enthusiasm, and Nicole Taylor’s scripts are truly brilliant. Nicole’s adaptation makes me better understand my own novel and myself. My 51-year-old self can’t wait to see what they do with this story of privilege, desire and teenage angst.
Preparation joins Netflix’s slate of upcoming YA series that includes The sticks, the body, poseur, And Sid and Zoey. Since the first half of 2023, when Netflix began publishing comprehensive audience insights, YA titles have generated more than 10.4 billion global views on the streamer, including two, Wednesday And Stranger Thingsoccupying four spots in Netflix’s Top 10 English-speaking series list, No. 1, No. 3, No. 4 and No. 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 for 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 adapted into a film by New Line and Hello Sunshine; Rodham, which was previously in development as a television series at Hulu; The man of my dreams; American wife; Sister country And Eligible. It is replaced by WME.
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