The author behind the psychological thriller book series You, which launched fan-favorite serial killer Joe Goldberg and a Netflix series, is adapting short story The Attentionist.
Variety reports that Caroline Kepnes will write and direct the short-form series based on her own 2022 short story by the same name, which first appeared in Tor Nightfire’s horror anthology Dark Stars.
The series is set to launch on YouTube as part of a significant slate to be announced in the coming days.
The Attentionist is set in a ’90s Cape Cod neighborhood where working locals live year-round alongside part-time summer tourists and residents.
The eight-episode first season will follow “an awkward 14-year-old named Maeve and her older sister. As the girls ache for a way into the glittering world of the waterfront elite, a secret phone romance with a boy from the local boat club finally makes that dream feel possible. But when the voice on the line begins to reveal something monstrous, Maeve doesn’t hang up, drawing her family deeper into the dark.“
“Sometimes it feels like a lakeside slasher, and sometimes it feels like a boy-meets-girl oceanside summer romance,” Kepnes told Variety. “I wrote ‘The Attentionist’ as a mashup of genres and being at the helm of the adaptation is quite literally a dream come true. I wanted to combine my love of emotional creepy horror with my affection for small town family drama, and set it in the veiled, insular world of the Cape where I grew up.”
The project will shoot on location in Kepnes’ native Cape Cod, and casting is currently underway.
