Netflix reunites ‘The Stranger’ team for adaptation of Harlan Coben’s ‘Stay Close’

Harlan Coben

Netflix has commissioned an adaptation of US author Harlan Coben’s best-selling novel Stay Close, with the same team behind The Stranger attached to produce.

Stay Close will reunite long-term collaborators Nicola Shindler – who recently launched her own scripted label at ITV Studios – and Richard Fee as executive producers, alongside creator Harlan Coben and Danny Brocklehurst, who is attached as lead writer again. The team created The Stranger for Netflix earlier this year and this will be their fourth drama collaboration following that series, alongside Safe and The Five.

In keeping with previous adaptations, the eight-part Stay Close, which is being produced by Studiocanal-owned RED Production Company, will relocate the story from the US to the UK and tell the story of three seemingly ordinary people concealing dark secrets – a working mother, a detective obsessed with a cold case and a photographer stuck in a dead-end job.

Cush Jumbo (The Good Fight), James Nesbitt (Bloody Sunday) and Richard Armitage (The Stranger) will star as the trio whose lives are upended when a face from the past returns.

The series, which is due to go into production in the UK next year, is part of Coben’s five-year deal with Netflix to develop 14 of his titles into film and TV dramas. Other projects include Polish original The Woods, Spanish original The Innocent, the film Six Years, written and directed by David Ayer, and Gone For Good, which is currently filming in France.

“I am so happy and excited to Stay Close (pun intended) with Danny Brocklehurst, Nicola Shindler and Richard Fee – the same team that made The Stranger, Safe and The Five,” said Coben. “ And talk about a dream-come-true cast – Cush Jumbo, an incendiary and awesome talent; Jimmy Nesbitt, a legendary actor I always wanted to collaborate with; and wow, Richard Armitage back again.”

“After the phenomenal success of The Stranger, I’m elated to be collaborating once again with RED, Netflix and the master storyteller Harlan Coben,” said Brocklehurst. “Stay Close will be a compelling twisty turny ride through the dark heart of suburban life that leaves viewers desperate for answers.”