'You' Author Caroline Kepnes to Write and Direct 'The Attentionist' Series on Cape Cod
Caroline Kepnes, the author behind the 'You' book series that became a five-season Netflix hit, will write and direct 'The Attentionist,' an eight-episode series heading to YouTube as part of a slate from a media venture yet to be named, according to Variety.
The series is adapted from Kepnes' own 2022 short story of the same name, which first appeared in 'Dark Stars,' a horror anthology published by Tor Nightfire. Set in the 1990s on Cape Cod, it follows Maeve, an awkward 14-year-old, and her older sister as they pursue a secret phone romance with a boy from the local boat club. The setting is a Cape Cod neighbourhood where year-round working locals live alongside part-time summer residents — a world Kepnes knows intimately, having grown up there.
Mark Roberts of Roberts Media and Lorena David are producing. The plan is to shoot on location on Cape Cod in autumn 2026, with key roles still being cast, according to Production List.
Kepnes' path to the director's chair has been building quietly. She wrote for the television series '7th Heaven' and 'The Secret Life of the American Teenager' before her debut novel 'You' — a first-person thriller narrated by a charismatic stalker named Joe Goldberg — was named one of the best thrillers of the 21st century by the New York Times. The 'You' world now spans five books and spawned the Netflix series starring Penn Badgley, which ran for five seasons. Her latest novel, 'You First,' an origin story tracing Goldberg as a 17-year-old in post-9/11 New York City, was released in June.
Before the novels, Kepnes worked as a pop culture journalist for Entertainment Weekly and is a graduate of Brown University. Her short fiction has drawn recognition too: 'Room 24,' published in an anthology tied to Stephen King's 'The Stand,' earned her a Shirley Jackson Award nomination. Her late parents, Monica and Harold Kepnes, were described as fixtures in the Cape Cod community where the series will film.
What makes 'The Attentionist' stand out is the platform choice. A scripted series launching on YouTube rather than a traditional streamer or cable network places it in a relatively new lane for premium serialized storytelling. The unnamed media venture backing the slate is expected to be announced in the coming days, according to Variety, which should clarify the business model behind the release.
For Kepnes, the series is also a homecoming of sorts. A story rooted in the class tensions of a Cape Cod summer community, shot on the same stretch of coast where she grew up, with the author herself behind the camera for the first time at feature length. Production is slated to begin this autumn.
