WS_0618_MCHALL_WSN_1207_IN THE NEWS 6/4/18 3:08 PM Page 3
on and explore, it’s like a living novel in a way. The production value rivals any film in terms of the talent of the people they hire to shoot these shows, the budget that might be provided, and the appetite for risk-taking and boundarypushing that exists in TV. I would say maybe American film in the ’70s is the only place where you could find the kind of adventurousness that is now in television. The writers who aspire to do that kind of work are completely gravitating toward TV. It’s a good place to be. WS: You’ve been in film, television and theater. Do you enjoy them all equally or do you have a preference? HALL: I enjoy the luxury of being able to do everything. My appreciation of one is informed by my participation in the
other. Doing a film is great, in part because I can appreciate that it’s unique from doing a television show or doing something on stage and vice versa. But I’m happy that I’m able to mix it up. WS: Are you drawn to dark characters, or do they just come your way? HALL: I suppose it’s a combination of being drawn to them and attracting them for having done it. I don’t know that I would say I’m drawn to darker material, but I’m definitely drawn to complexity and conflict; it’s inherently dramatic. Characters carrying some sort of secret or internalized conflict are certainly more interesting to me.
By Mansha Daswani Harlan Coben has penned some 30 novels over his prolific career, with more than 70 million books in print worldwide. Over the last few years Coben has been making a name for himself in the television space as well, notably creating The Five for Sky and serving as showrunner and executive producer on two adaptations of his novels for TF1. His latest endeavor is Safe—for C8 in France and Netflix everywhere else—which saw Coben again teaming with Nicola Shindler from RED Production Company and screenwriter Danny Brocklehurst, with whom he collaborated on The Five. Coben tells World Screen about the psychological thriller. WS: Tell us about Safe. COBEN: Michael C. Hall stars as a widower who is trying to take care of two teenage kids in a gated community. One night after a party, two kids disappear and next thing you know there’s a murder, mayhem, buried secrets—everything about this small, tight community is about to explode. It’s called Safe because it’s a gated community. I was thinking about walls—we build these walls to keep the bad out, but maybe sometimes we build these walls to keep the bad in. WS: C8 is the French broadcaster, Netflix has taken it worldwide, it was produced by RED in the U.K. and your home is in the U.S.—it’s a very international project! COBEN: That’s part of the fun of it. Michael and I are American. The writing team and the production team are British. It was filmed in
Manchester. [Co-stars] Amanda Abbington and Marc Warren are huge British stars. And then we have Audrey Fleurot, a wonderful, famous French actress. C8 is one of the [platforms] behind it. And our director for the first two episodes is Australian. So we are trying to represent the entire globe. It’s the time of international TV, why not put it all in one show? WS: As you’re devising ideas, are you thinking about what the ideal home for a show will be? COBEN: Not even a little. I do the idea, the story first, and then we worry about what network, what platform, is going to do it. I need to be binge-watched though. I want each episode to end, and then you want to go to the next one. Safe does that better than any other show I’ve done. And I always want that shocking ending. I know some of you think you’ve experienced that in trying to figure these things out, but you’re not going to guess the ending to Safe, I promise you! WS: Why is making a show binge-worthy important to you? COBEN: I’m a novelist, I write thrillers and suspense. If you take my book to bed at 10 o’clock at night and say, I’m just going to read for 15 minutes and the next thing you know it’s 4 o’clock in the morning and you’re cursing me out—I love that! I want you to not be able to put it down. I want to give you that same experience with a TV show. Safe is an eight-episode story, and so I want you to gulp it as much as you can, and savor it at the same time. WS: What have been some of the biggest lessons learned for you as you’ve done more television work? COBEN: As a novelist, you get a report card that says, “Does not play well with others.” And TV is all about playing with others. I love the collaboration aspect. I haven’t written any fewer novels. I’m able to still do the novels and I love that. I’m naturally an introvert—a socially adept introvert, but I am an introvert. I’m writing my 31st novel— that’s a lot of time alone in a room. So to get out and be able to collaborate with really talented people has been exciting.
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