WOWOW, TBS coproduce noir drama

Japanese free TV broadcaster TBS and leading premium pay TV platform WOWOW are coproducing a drama series based on a hardboiled detective novel.

The pair are creating Mozu as a double season commission. The series represents the second time TBS and WOWOW have coproduced a drama, coming after their 2012 Infernal Affairs television remake Double Face.

Unusually for competing broadcasters, the channels have agreed to an innovative broadcast model in which TBS will launch season one in April 2014 before entertainment net WOWOW Prime launches season two in the summer.

Mozu centres on two central characters that engage in a “thrilling and intense game of cat and mouse”, according to the producers. It is based on author Go Osaka’s noir novel Mozu no Sakebu Yoru.

Season one will follow a grizzled detective tracking down the perpetrator of a bombing that claimed the life of his wife, while season two will expand the story to include an international conspiracy.

Double Face’s director Eiichiro Hasumi is attached to the new project.