Netflix Officially Scores New Series Based on 20-Year-Old Classic

Netflix is making a long-standing habit of turning successful novels into huge streaming hits. Recently, the streamer did this with an adaptation of John Steinbeck‘s celebrated 1952 family saga, East of Eden, with Avengers: Doomsday and Dune: Part Three‘s Florence Pugh starring as Cathy Ames. The series became an instant hit on the platform, topping the Netflix charts in America, before continuing its success much longer than many had predicted.

It was recently revealed that the series grew from 6.5 million views in Week 1 to a cumulative 28.9 million views in Week 4, a rise similar to the all-conquering Adolescence. This is the sort of growth and popularity that Netflix will be hoping for with its next adaptation of a beloved novel, which was announced yesterday. Nicole Taylor, known for her work on One Day and Three Girls, will bring to life a new series based on Curtis Sittenfeld‘s debut novel PREP, which follows:

“Scholarship student Lee Fiora through her high school years as she navigates friendship, crushes, and class as a fish out of water among her privileged, confident classmates at Ault, an elite fictional New England prep school.”

“Scholarship student Lee Fiora through her high school years as she navigates friendship, crushes, and class as a fish out of water among her privileged, confident classmates at Ault, an elite fictional New England prep school.”

• The first film not in the English language to win Best Picture, in the Academy’s
  92-year history to that point.
• It took four Oscars in one night: Picture, Director, Original Screenplay and International
  Feature.
• It won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2019 by a unanimous jury vote, the first Korean film
  to do so.
• The Park family’s modernist house was not a location. It was built from scratch on an
  outdoor lot.

• Seven Oscars, including three acting wins for Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan and Jamie Lee
  Curtis.
• Michelle Yeoh became the first Asian woman to win Best Actress.
• The visual effects were handled by a team of fewer than ten people, most of them
  self-taught.
• Ke Huy Quan had all but left acting for two decades before this role brought him back.

• Seven Oscars, including Nolan’s first wins for directing and for Best Picture.
• Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey Jr. both took their first Academy Awards for it.
• Kodak engineered a black-and-white 65mm stock that did not previously exist so Nolan could
  shoot those sequences on IMAX.
• A three-hour, R-rated drama about theoretical physics that passed 950 million dollars
  worldwide.

• Four Oscars, among them Best Picture and Best Director for Iñárritu.
• Emmanuel Lubezki’s win here was the middle of three consecutive cinematography Oscars,
  after Gravity and before The Revenant.
• Antonio Sánchez’s improvised drum score was ruled ineligible for the score category,
  which caused a minor uproar.
• The long-take illusion was built from a handful of extended shots joined by hidden cuts.

• Four Oscars: Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, and Supporting Actor for Javier Bardem.
• Adapted from Cormac McCarthy’s 2005 novel, with much of his dialogue carried over
  intact.
• Carter Burwell’s score runs about sixteen minutes and is nearly inaudible by design.
• Roger Deakins was nominated twice that year, for this and The Assassination of Jesse James,
  and won for neither.

What Do We Know About ‘PREP’?

Fans of the original novel, which was named one of The New York Times’ top five works of fiction for 2005, have had to wait patiently for an adaptation to get the green light. “I’m overjoyed that Netflix is making PREP as a TV show — the 22-year wait was worth it,” Sittenfeld said in a statement. “Obviously, Netflix is Netflix, with its amazing power and reach, and I also love that two of the people behind the project both read my novel as young adults and are now talented women at the height of their professional powers.”

Entertainment Weekly also labeled the book a “cult-classic” in 2018, with showrunner Taylor calling it her “all-time favorite novel,” adding, “I have longed to adapt it for the entire twenty years since I first read it and found myself reflected uncannily back.” Will Ferrell, Jessica Elbaum, and Alix Taylor will join Sittenfeld as executive producers on the series.

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East of Eden