Netflix has given a straight-to-series order to Prep, a half-hour adaptation of Curtis Sittenfeld’s bestselling debut novel. The project was developed internally and comes from Nicole Taylor, head writer and executive producer of the streamer’s limited series One Day, and Gloria Sanchez Productions.
The coming-of-age story follows Lee Fiora, a scholarship student at Ault, a prestigious New England boarding school. There, she navigates friendships, crushes and class differences while feeling out of place among her privileged, confident classmates.
BAFTA TV Award winner Taylor will write and serve as showrunner. She will also executive produce with Will Ferrell, Jessica Elbaum and Alix Taylor for Gloria Sanchez Productions, alongside Sittenfeld. A writers’ room is scheduled to open in January.
Taylor said the novel had been her favourite since she first read it and that she had wanted to adapt it for two decades. Sittenfeld welcomed the adaptation, praising Taylor’s scripts and Alix Taylor’s work guiding the project.
The series follows an earlier attempt to adapt Prep for television: HBO developed a comedy version a decade ago, but it did not move forward. Netflix’s adaptation will use a half-hour format but is not a comedy.
Sources: Deadline.