Caroline Kepnes, author of the novel series “You,” which inspired the global Netflix hit, has assembled a team of buzzy actors for her series directorial debut.
Katherine Mallen Kupferer, Audrey Grace Marshall, Dean Norris and Jordan Ladd will star in “The Attentionist,” a digital-first project that combines elements of a ’90s family dramedy and a psychological thriller.
Kupferer and Marshall will play sisters Maeve and Reg, whose sibling dynamic is “gloriously messy,” according to an official description. The two actors just co-starred in “Mouse,” a Berlin Film Festival player this year starring Sophie Okonedo and David Hyde Pierce.
Norris (a fan favorite from “Breaking Bad”) and Ladd (a noted scream queen) play their parents. Norris’ character is “Tony Soprano minus the Mafia,” while Ladd’s plays an “unfairly hot mom not aware her daughters are unraveling.”
“The Attentionist” is set in a ‘90s Cape Cod neighborhood where the coastal elite live side by side with seasonal summer residents. The story picks up when 14-year-old Maeve and her older sister, Reg, start a secret phone romance with a boy from the local boat club who promises a way into the upper echelons of Cape Cod society. But when the voice on the phone takes a dark turn, Maeve keeps listening, pulling her family further into a monstrous secret.
Kepnes serves as writer and director for “The Attentionist.” Mark Roberts of Roberts Media (“Meet Me Next Christmas”) and Lorena David (“Strangers with Candy”) serve as producers. The project, which will shoot on location in Kepnes’ native Cape Cod, is set for release on YouTube.
”The heart of this story is a total genre clash. One minute it’s this awkward ’90s oceanside family comedy, and the next it plunges into raw psychological dread,” Kepnes said. “To pull that off, I needed a family that felt completely real and delightfully chaotic. Watching Dean, Jordan, Katherine and Audrey bring these dynamics to life as unseen terror creeps into their lives is everything I hoped it would be.”
A release date is not yet set for “The Attentionist.”