Warner Bros. Discovery orders first Max show in Spain with ‘When Nobody Sees Us’ adaptation

Enrique Urbizu

Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) has greenlit the first show from Spain for its rebranded Max streamer, with a drama based on Sergio Sarria’s novel When Nobody Sees Us.

The 8 x 50-minute series is from Zeta Studios and is set in Andalusia against the dramatic backdrop of the Spanish Holy Week celebrations.

It tracks the investigations of a bizarre suicide in a small town and the attempts to find an American soldier who has gone missing from a nearby military base. Police soon discover that the two incidents are connected, involving both townspeople and US military personnel.

The show, which has started production, is being written by Daniel Corpas, with the collaboration of Arturo Ruiz and Isa Sanchez. Enrique Urbizu (No Rest For The Wicked) directs all eight episodes.

When Nobody Sees Us is the first production from Spain to be announced for Max, which launched in the US earlier this year and combines HBO Max and Discovery+. It will roll out in Latin America later this year, before launching in the 22 European countries that currently offer HBO Max, including Spain, from early 2024.

While WBD cut production for HBO Max across swathes of Europe last year, the company retained its local production strategy in Spain for the streamer. It has been behind shows including comedy Headless Chickens and How To Screw It All Up, which debuted last summer, while unscripted greenlights have included FBoy Island, Traitors and docuseries Saving The King.

Antonio Asensio, president of Zeta Studios, said: “It is very exciting to see a project to which we have dedicated so much time and affection come to fruition. With the discovery of the trilogy of novels by Sergio Sarria, we saw the possibility of developing a series with a strong international character, with the Holy Week and the American base in Morón as the backdrop for a border thriller with an ambition never seen before in our fiction.”

Urbizu added that the show would be a “first, and exciting, incursion into the television serial of detectives and pure investigation”.

WBD’s Miguel Salvat, who exec produces for Max, described the show as “a bet for the purest thriller, in which the limits of different frontiers in themes and narrative are explored.”