Charting the course of Paramount+ thriller ‘The Castaways’ from script to screen

Sheridan Smith as Lori

Sun, sea, sand… and a plane crash are the order of the day in Paramount+ UK’s upcoming adaptation of Lucy Clarke’s novel The Castaways.

Filmed on location In Fiji and Greece by Clapperboard Studios and BlackBox Multimedia, the 5 x 60-minute series is one of the key scripted titles being brought to MIPCOM by BBC Studios this year, with the firm taking worldwide distribution rights.

Sheridan Smith (Rosie Molloy Gives Up Everything) and Céline Buckens (Showtrial) head the cast as sisters Lori and Erin, respectively, who embark on the holiday of a lifetime in Fiji. After a huge fight, however, Erin never boards the island-hopping flight to their resort – and the plane, with Lori on board, never arrives at its destination.

Months later, with no plane or survivors having been found, Lori’s credit card is suddenly used in a corner shop in a remote village in Fiji, and on CCTV Erin recognises the plane’s pilot. She sets out on a journey to find him and discover the mystery of what happened to her sister.

The show jumps between two timelines as it alternates between the two sisters’ perspectives – Erin on a perilous mission to uncover the truth of the crash, and Lori as she struggles for survival among her fellow castaways on a deserted island.

Act One: Swift commission

The Castaways is the second Lucy Clarke novel to be adapted for Paramount+ this year, following the launch of No Escape, based on her book The Blue, in May.

Mike Benson, MD at Clapperboard and exec producer on the series, tells TBI: “We’re big fans of her books, they’re real page turners,” with the firm optioning the rights to the 2020 novel and working “really quite closely” alongside the author throughout.

A good working relationship with Paramount meant no lengthy pitching process and it was instead a swift pick up for the project, reveals Benson: “We’ve produced a lot for them, so they tend to be our first port of call.

“They believed in the concept and the team and bringing [writer] Ben [Harris] on board and so, unusually, they commissioned it from a book option – and BBC Studios did the same. So we weren’t in two years of development hell; it was right, let’s make it happen, which is terrifying, but also really exciting.”

Paramount and BBC Studios provided the “lion’s share” of funding, with tax credits in Greece and Ireland, where post-production took place, helping to complete the rest.

Ben Harris was brought on to serve as lead writer on the series, alongside Polly Buckle and Jesse O’Mahoney, and to also executive produce. Andy Tohill and Ryan Tohill direct the series, with Myf Hopkins serving as the producer. Giuliano Papadia and Chiara Cardoso also executive produce for BlackBox MultiMedia.

“Lucy writes in quite a cinematic way, so the book provides a really good base for a TV show,” Harris tells TBI, explaining that part of his job was to ‘crank up’ the story for the screen. “It was something that Lucy totally understood and was on board with,” says Harris. “I was asked to read the book and pitch a take and then, fortunately, these guys didn’t hate it.”

Céline Buckens as Erin

Act Two: Cranking it up

“I see this as a propulsive psychological thriller but driven by emotion. That is sort of what I aspire to do in all my work,” says Harris.

“What the book has got is two very strong leads and their co-dependent emotional bond through a shared trauma as kids, and then it’s got this very smart, dual timeline.”

He elaborates: “I loved that Erin, the younger sister, didn’t get on the plane, and how much that would eat away at you and how guilty you’d feel, and how desperate.”

Taking these “tentpoles” from the original book, Harris then added some elements for his adaptation: “There was a mystery in the book as to why the plane disappeared; I felt like I could probably make that slightly bigger for TV.

“Also, what was very important to me is that – the Lori character is stranded on this island for months and months – so it’s very important that everyone else on the island has a role to play, they’re not just there to facilitate the Lori story.”

Benson, meanwhile, half-laughs as he tells us: “We added crocodiles, which was not necessarily in the in the book.” He also highlights the plane crash that sets the story in motion, which he describes as “terrifying”.

“I think we’ve done something really different with that. It’s character-based work on the plane crash; it’s very intimate, as well. I don’t think there were any set pieces or big elements of the book that we haven’t kept and tried to build on.”

While filming in “a beach environment and jungle environment is always tricky”, Benson says that shooting in Fiji and Greece posed few problems, other than the heat.

“There were no big crises; the only one probably was that we have some scenes with fire, and, because of the heat, there was a blanket fire ban across the whole of Greece. That created a few creative challenges that we’ve had to address in final post.”

Benson was, meanwhile, impressed by the setup of the local service companies in Fiji, with filming on location adding a “distinct element” and authenticity to the Erin-centric scenes.

Dominic Tighe as Daniel

Act Three: Unpeeling the mystery

Casting the leads, much like commissioning, was a straightforward affair, say Benson and Harris, with Smith described as “a friend” and having worked with Clapperboard and Paramount last year on Channel 5 drama The Teacher.

“They were both in the conversation,” says Harris. “When they pitched to me, I weirdly had just been a judge for the International Emmys in the Best Actress category,” for which Buckens was nominated for her role in the BBC drama Showtrial. “So as soon as she was suggested, I was like, yes, it’s fate that I saw her in that. That was just a no brainer.”

With the show going before buyers at MIPCOM this week, Benson believes the mystery behind the plane crash will keep viewers hooked, wherever they are in the world.

“I think it unravels in a way that’s really satisfying. You know, everyone on the island has something to learn and something that is revealed about them. It’s a really intricate mystery, but I think it keeps you watching to the very end. I think viewers will be absolutely gripped.”

Benson adds: “The production value we’ve got, with filming in Greece and Fiji, has delivered everything that we wanted.

“We didn’t want it to feel just like a survival story on the island – we wanted it to very much feel like a mystery that’s been investigated and unpeeled through Lori and Erin’s journey.”