Adapted from Harlan Coben's 2003 novel, the five-part series
Gone Forever
has been available on Netflix since Friday.
The successful American novelist has signed with the platform for 14 adaptations and series.
The specificity: these series come from different countries, with a more or less involved Harlan Coben, and a more or less successful result
If we have talked a lot about the "mega deals" of Shonda Rhimes, Ryan Murphy and Obamas with Netflix, we must not forget that the platform has also offered the American novelist Harlan Coben not for hundreds of millions of dollars but for 14… series!
Which amounts to the same, even more.
These fictions are all adaptations of his books, already translated into some forty languages and sold 75 million copies worldwide.
Their other specificity is that they come from different countries.
After the British
Intimidation
, the Polish
In the Woods
or the Spanish
Innocent
, the French
Missing Forever
arrived on Netflix on Friday.
The pitch is pure Harlan Coben (not always to say the same pitch): in order to find his missing fiancée without leaving any traces, Guillaume will have to face his past, and return to that night when his big brother Fred and his first love Sonia are dead ...
"It is not me who imposes my choice"
If the writer is used to declining the recipe for his success in his novels, he is not the one who adapts his stories to series. Surprise: Harlan Coben does not even decide which books to adapt, as he explains to the Journal du dimanche: "It is not me who imposes my choice, but the writers in different countries who share their desires with the platform. to put my stories into pictures. In Spain, for example, Oriol Paulo said he was interested in
Innocent
. I liked the approach of the thriller in his cinema, and his vision to breathe new life into the novel thrilled me. "
For
Ever Gone
, the impetus came from David Elkaïm and Vincent Poymiro, the scriptwriters duo of
So Be They
and
In Therapy
.
“I did not know them, admits Harlan Coben, still in the
JDD
.
But the French Netflix team praised their talent to me, and I found their idea of bringing the plot to Nice appealing.
The film
Don't tell anyone
, by Guillaume Canet, and the series
Une chance de trop
and
Juste un regard
were set in Paris, and even though I love this city, I know (…) how there are other beautiful places to discover.
The beauty of the landscape and the blue of the Mediterranean skillfully contrasted with the darkness of the plot, and I said banco.
"
Harlan Coben learned to make series in France
The writers not only changed the location of the action, but also parts of the plot, as readers of the book, or only the back cover, may have discovered.
No problem for Harlan Coben: "you have to betray a novel to succeed in a series", he assures us.
And to take as an example his adaptation work with Guillaume Canet on
Ne le dis nobody
fifteen years ago.
It is there, in France, that it all began.
And more precisely, it is on TF1, with
Une chance de trop
and
Juste un regard
, that Harlan Coben the novelist "became" screenwriter and producer of series, helped by an army of local writers and directors.
This is perhaps also why
Gone Forever
looks like a TF1 series.
No more no less.
Despite its promising cast (Finnegan Oldfield, Nicolas Duvauchelle, Guillaume Gouix, Garance Marillier) and the directing of Juan Carlos Medina,
Vanished Forever
never leaves the standards of the all-comer of French fiction.
So she looks at herself without displeasure but without passion.
Yet other Netflix adaptations have shown that it is possible to make a difference.
In the woods
bet everything on the atmosphere, to the detriment of the intrigue it is true, and, above all, Oriol Paulo reappropriated and transcended the original material of
Innocent
to offer the best thriller to twists of which it is. is made the specialty with
The Accused
.
When will we see an adaptation in the United States?
There remains an enigma: why is the American novelist not a prophet in his country?
There have been attempts, including an adaptation of
Gone Forever
for NBC or a
Tell No
One movie
starring Liam Neeson, but to no avail.
His next Netflix series are coming from England (
Do not move away
) and Poland (
Without a word
).
At the time of the British series and original creation
The Five
, Harlan Coben explained: “The real question is who you are going to work with.
Now, I don't know if any Americans want to work with me.
Finally, I think I have more freedom in France or the United Kingdom than I will have in the United States.
"
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