Netflix Signs On To Make More Harlan Coben Thrillers
Michelle Keegan and Joanna Lumley in "Fool Me Once"
(Photo: Vishal Sharma/Netflix)
Netflix is going back to the bookshelf for more Harlan Coben novels to adapt. The streaming service has been doing adaptations of the Coben novels since 2016, with a commitment to produce multiple adaptations since 2018. Though the author's novels are set in America, and the author himself is from New Jersey, the Netflix adaptations, produced by British studios, reimagine them as London-based (when they're not reset in European countries). Each seems more wildly popular than the last, with Fool Me Once, the eighth one, hitting the top of the streaming charts in January 2024.
For its ninth and tenth adaptations, Netflix will adapt 2014's Missing You and 2019's Run Away. Nicola Shindler's Quay Street Productions, the ITV Studios-backed production outfit that produced Fool Me Once, will be the main producer for both the new series, with Coben serving as executive producer through his company Final Twist Productions. Here's the synopsis:
Missing You tells the story of detective Kat Donovan stumbling across her estranged fiancé on a dating app, forcing her to delve back into the mystery surrounding her father’s murder.
Missing You will be written by Victoria Asare-Archer, who wrote for the Netflix adaptation of Coben's Stay Close. Director Sean Spencer will helm the series. Executive producers are Coben, Shindler, Asare-Archer, Danny Brocklehurst, and Richard Fee. Guy Hescott will produce.
Missing You & Run Away Cover Art
Hachette Book Group
Here's the synopsis for Run Away:
Run Away centers on Simon, whose perfect life is shattered when his oldest daughter, Paige, runs away and is found vulnerable and strung out on drugs in a city park. Simon’s search takes him into a dangerous underworld, where a shocking act of violence further rocks his life.
Danny Brocklehurst, who wrote Fool Me Once, will pen Run Away. The director has not been set, but it will be executive produced by Coben, Shindler, Fee, and Brocklehurst. Casts for both series will be announced in due course when filming commences later in 2024. While no stars have been hinted at as yet, Richard Armitage has notably starred in every English language adaptation of a Harlan Coben novel produced by Netflix since 2018, and it is probably a good bet he'll find a way to appear in these as well to keep that streak alive.
Missing You is expected to film in 2024 and release at the end of the year or early 2025. Run Away is expected to film after Missing You completes production and stream in 2025.
