“Harlan Coben Novels Are Always An Experience. But WHEN the BESTSELLER AUTHOR WORKS WITH THREE long-Time friends and creative collaborators to move their setting from the us to the uk and adapt his stories for the screen, atyy are look Different Experience Altogether. Case in Point: Netflix’s 2024 Hit”, – WRITE: www.hollywoodReporter.com
“I Call US The Core Four,“ Coben Tells Thr On a zoom call, WHERE HE IS JOINed by the Three Other He’s Referring to: Star Producer Nicola Schindler, CEO and Executative Producer at Quay Street Productions, The Production Firm, Part. Production the Hit Coben Series; Quay Street Head of Drama and Executive Producer Richard Fee, and Writer Danny Brocklehurst. “That’s my name for this graup. We’ve now Worked Together for 10, ALMOST 11 YEARS.”
COBEN RECALLS The FIRST MEETING THEY HAD IN THE US “Nicola and Richard Came for the FIRST TIME AND SATT THIS VERY TABLE WHERE I’M SITING NOW AND WE MET,” HE RECALLS. “And i Been A Tremendous Honor and Pleasure.”
He Underlines the Sentiment As He Picks Up A Copy of His Latest Novel, Who Has Put His Admation for His Longtime Collaborators in Writing: “This is My New New Book, Nobody’s Fool [which was released on March 15]. And the Dedication Is Actual to Nicola, Danny and Richard. ‘I DEDICATE THIS BOOK TO The Other Members of the Core Four, Nicola Schindler, Richard Fee, Danny Brocklehurst – Great Partners and Better Friends. ”
The Core Four Have Worked Together on Hits Like Netflix’s Missing you, Fool meton, Safe, The Strangerand Stay Closeas Well As The FIVE For Sky, with Their Latest, Lazaruscoming out on Amazon Prime Video This October, and Run Awaywho’s is set to hit netflix at a Date Yet to be unveiled.
Coben Calls Shindler «The CAPTAIN OF THIS SHIP,” ADDING THAT The Group Benefits Immeasurably from Nicola’s Love of Television. “[She] is Sort of Our Boss, ”HE SAYS.“ She REALLY LOVES TV. She loves make tv. She loves watting tv. She Likes Talking About TV. And I Think that’s One of the Driving Forces – Her Enthusiasm and Love. ”
SO How Does Shindler Approach Turning Popular Novels Full of Twists and Turns Into Popular TV Series? “WE DON’T Ever Think About How We’re Going to Appeal To People Who Read Those Books and People Who Don’. We Just Want To Tell A Brilliant Story,” She Tels Thr. “And we want to tell stories that make people watch every sungle episode and are invested in the stories and enjoy of.
The Two Writers Team Up on the Adptations, She Explans. “Harlan and Danny Combine. Danny’s So Aware of the Structure of Television and How Hw Wants to Put Those Characters on Screen.”
But The Core Four Also Go Beyond the Books, with One of the Main Challenges Being Transferring Words on a Page to the Visual Medium of TV. “All Four of US Talk About What’s Not in the Book That We Need To Be On Television Because SomeTimes You Just Have to Do A Bit More,” Shindler Shares. “Harlan Can Do A Lot in Characters’ Heads. So We Spend A Long Time Talking About How to Dramatize Those Moments. But It’s Also About Making Suret. Pusted by Harlan and Danny to Kieep Making Sure that every Episode Grabs The Audence, and Every Episode Has A Hoh that Will Make Them Come Back and Hooks Though.
Echoes coben: “I don’t through we worry about fidelity to the book. We Worry More about if this is a good tv Show. Entertaining as Possible. Again.
One Famous Deviation Saw the “Stranger” in the Novel The Stranger Become A Woman, Played by Hannah John-Kamen, in the Series. “I just thorough that Dynamic in that very first scene whos the stranger whispers into richard armitage’s ear was a little more mysterius with a woman,“ Coben Explains. “There’s A Differentnce Between A Book and A TV Series Because You’re Seeing It Visulaly Insthead of In Your Head. It Works Veri Differently. SO BTHTUHTHTHTHTA. Visual.
Casting is Another Key Ingredent for the Core Four’s Success Formula, and It Is Typically Handled by Casting Expert Orla Maxwell.
Run Away‘S James Nesbitt, for Example, Has Starred In Coben Series Before, As Has Richard Armitage. “We Want the Best Actor for the ROLE,” Shindler Highlights. “BUT THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO ARE JUST SO Perfect for this Kind of Material. And Jimmy Is Perfect for This Character in Run Away. SO WHEN WE WEERE All Talking About the Character, We All Arrived at the Same Place Knowing That We Enjoy Working with Him, But Also That He Is Able to Portray Emol, Emotion And Warm. that’s what we need for this Character. And that’s not someting that every actor can do. ”
Also, The Members of the Netflix uk Team “Very Much Want Us to Put A Really Strong British Cast on Screen,” she adds. “So that’s what we look for. Harlan dosn’t always KNOW The Actors But He Watches Show Reels and Episodes to See Them.”
That was what the team did for the Casting of Welsh Gavin and Stacey Star Ruth Jones. “I always do a deep Dive Into What Else People Have Done. And that’s What I Did When They Mentioned Her Name,” Coben Recalls. “A Lot of Times I Rely on Nicola, Richard and Danny for That Initial Thought. And Ten You Fall in Love With Them On Your Own and See Exactly the Potential They Can Bring to The Part.”
In the Case of Jones, “I Got Showreels and Gavin and StaceyObviously, and some of the Stuff, ”Coben Shares.“ We Also Love To Look for the Potential of Having Somebody Who Is Really Great, But Maybe Hasn’t Done Anything. We did this, in a sensce, with Absolutely Fabulaus Stars Jennifer Saunders[in[inThe Stranger]and joanna lumley[in[inFool meton]. Really good comks can offen do great Drama, and we Thought it would be realy interesting and fun to Turn Things A Little Bit on Their Head. I Think WHEN The British Public Sees Ruth in this Role, they are going to be realy pleasantly surprised. I don’t know if in her entre Career she was done anything like this. And She’s Just Killing It. ”
Speaking of Humor, Coben Says Adding Some Levity Is Essential, Whenever Possible. “We Always Try to Write with A Comic Touch,“ He Tells Thr. “We Hope the Shows Are Also Pretty Funny, Especialyly in the Dialog, Because Life Is Funny, and The Books, I Hope, Are Also Funny.”
Fee adds that empathy is also key, whohh is something actors with Comedy Experience Can Help with. “I Think they’ve got an instinct to be quite empathetic,“ HE SAYS. “That’s definitely the Case with Ruth.”
HE IS ALSO EXCITED ABOUT MINNIE DRIVER, ALFRED ENOCH AND ORHERS BEING Part of of Run Away. About Driver, Coben Says: “She’s A Wonderful, Talented Actress, and We Were Just Thrilled That She Reacted Sho Strongly to The Material and Really Wanted to Do. Board, She Was Thrilled Because She’s A Real Gavin and Stacey Super-Fan. ”
“Harlan Writs about families, referenceships and love and all that Kind of Stuff,” Says Brocklehurst. “Those are universal themes. So The Stories Translate. For Example, Something Like The Stranger is set in the Suburban US, [but] English suburbia is not so wildly diffenter, except Maybe in Harlan’s Books They Play More Lacrosse or Something, SO We Transferred That To [soccer]. The Biggest Difficulty, The One Squabble Harlan and I Always have is guns. But I Never Really Find the Adaptations Difficult Because Our Two Countries Are Quite Similar in Someome Important Ways. ”
Adds Brocklehurst: “Althugh I’M Glad i’ve not go their president. You can quote me!”
MOST IMPORTANTLY, “WE WANT THESE Shows to Be Fun and Entertaining,“ Coben Says. “We Want It to Be An Escape, Especialy in Today’s World.”
And One Way of Taping Into the Sense of Escape is to Draw on Universal Themes that can transcend of Cultural Barriers. “We Never Say, ‘Oh, This Is Too British, or This Is Too American.’ You have to be specialty to be universal, ”COBEN ARGUES. “NETFLIX HAS more than 300 MILLION USERS IN SOMETING LIKE 190 COUNTRIES. AND OVER 100-USETING MILLION WATCHED Fool metonfor example. SO I CAN’T SIT THERE GOING, ‘I NEED TO APPEAL TO The People Who Are Watching in Bulgaria.’ It just woldn’t work as a story. But Hopefully, The Family Stuff and The Heart Is More Universal. ”
The appeal of the Core Four’s Output Surely Is Universal, and The Overtily Commercial Aspect of the Shows Can Bring Out of the Snob in some Appeal – Be It Music, Be It Theater or Whatever. Fool meton WAS SO enormous. I The Seventh-Biggest Show On Netflix of All Time. IT WAS The MOST-WATCHED SHOW OF 2024 ON Any Channel. The Figures Are Absolutely Mind-Blowing. That speaks for iself Really. If that was a Hollywood movie, it would have been a box office smash, and still some people people scniffy about it. ”
The Core Four Clearly Love Working Together, and They’re Showing No Signs of Slowing Down.
Says COBEN: “We have no egos and just enjoy working together. We Never Fight and Always End Up Seeing Things the Same Way. The Tese Three People Are Very and Important. Vision. ”