Netflix Commits To Two More Harlan Coben Adaptations After ‘Fool Me Once’ Smash Hit
EXCLUSIVE: Netflix has greenlit another two adaptations of Harlan Coben novels after Fool Me Once became a global hit for the streaming service, Deadline can reveal.
Netflix will bring Missing You and Run Away to the screen as limited series over the coming years, with the former going into production in spring 2024.
Quay Street Productions, the ITV Studios-backed production outfit founded by Nicola Shindler, will produce both adaptations after overseeing Fool Me Once. Coben will serve as executive producer through his company Final Twist Productions.
Victoria Asare-Archer, who wrote two episodes of Coben’s Stay Close for Netflix in 2021, will write Missing You. Fool Me Once writer Danny Brocklehurst will pen Run Away.
The dramas will be the ninth and tenth Coben adaptations produced under Netflix’s fruitful partnership with the author, who has sold more than 80M books worldwide.
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.
The series will be directed by Sean Spencer, with Isher Sahota serving as second director. Executive producers are Coben, Shindler, Richard Fee, Asare-Archer, and Brocklehurst. Guy Hescott is the producer.
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.
Run Away will be executive produced by Coben, Shindler, Fee, and Brocklehurst.
Fool Me Once premiered on January 1 and featured Michelle Keegan’s Maya Stern struggling to come to terms with the murder of her husband and sister.
The series amassed 61M views in its first two weeks, topping Netflix’s global top 10 English language TV shows. In the UK, the show has been a big hit, with the first episode being watched by 6.3M viewers, according to British TV ratings body Barb.
Fool Me Once also starred Joanna Lumley, Richard Armitage, and Adeel Akhtar.