News

Hip, hip, hooray! It's the weekend, and what better way to unwind than with a thrilling Netflix binge? The streamer has an amazing selection of shows, and if you're craving suspenseful mysteries with unexpected twists, look no further than Harlan Coben's captivating series.

With 10 series adaptations of his novels and one original series available on the platform, it can be a challenge to figure out where to begin. But don't stress! That's where we at Show Snob come in to help you pick the best ones. You don’t want to waste your time, and neither do we.

So, we've narrowed down the top four must-watch Harlan Coben series currently streaming on Netflix and put together a list. Each one of these shows will keep you hooked from the very first episode to the last. You're not going to want to be disturbed for even a second as each moment unravels new secrets,...

Don't you just love a good thriller? The kind that keeps you guessing, second-guessing, and maybe even gasping out loud? Harlan Coben has mastered that formula, and he has plenty of binge-worthy thrillers currently streaming on Netflix. While a few have gotten the recognition they deserve, there are some underrated gems that might’ve flown under your radar. Well, it’s time to fix that.

Below, we shared three overlooked Harlan Coben Netflix series that deliver all the suspense, mystery, and mind-blowing twists you crave and then some. Believe me. You'll thank me later once you’ve binged your way through these hidden gems and found yourself wondering how they ever slipped past your radar in the first place!

Safe (2018)Creator: Harlan CobenCast: Michael C. Hall, Amy James-Kelly, Amanda Abbington, Marc Warren, Audrey Fleurot, Hero Fiennes TiffinEpisode count: 8

Alright. Some might argue that Safe isn't underrated because it had a...

2025 has gotten off to a great start with three new Harlan Coben adaptations released on Netflix. They are Missing You, Just One Look and Caught. But while all three bring their fair share of suspense and mystery, none of them I would consider the best out of the adaptations currently streaming. Missing You could be in the running, but I'd place Fool Me Once ahead of it. In fact, not even Fool Me Once takes the crown as the best Harlan Coben Netflix show. The series that I have in mind is underrated. It's a show that deserves way more recognition than it’s gotten. It's none other than The Innocent, or El inocente in Spanish.

This mystery thriller rarely gets mentioned when people talk about the best Harlan Coben adaptations, which is a real shame because it’s truly a hidden gem. Maybe the fact that it’s in...

Un thriller multiversal, una de samuráis en el Japón feudal o una carta de amor al cine negro, entre el top del 2024.

© mundoCine | Apple TV+ | Disney Plus+ | Movistar Plus+

Como hemos hecho con las películas, ahora les toca el turno a las series: las mejores nuevas series de 2024. Nada de segundas, terceras, cuartas y un largo etcétera de temporadas de series que ya conocéis. Y es que, el 2024 ha sido, sin duda, un gran año seriéfilo –especialmente para las producciones televisivas españolas–, que nos ha tenido pegados al sofá, devorando episodios uno detrás de otro.

Pero no queríamos quedarnos en un simple ranking. Nuestra intención es que, además de descubrir qué nuevas series nos han marcado, encontréis motivos suficientes para darles una oportunidad. En este artículo, Marta Medina y Mario Hernández, miembros del equipo de mundoCine, han seleccionado las que para ellos han sido las mejores nuevas series del año...

The Invisible Guest, or Contratiempo ("Setback") in the native Spanish, is a 2016 mystery thriller with twists and turns that constantly put into question how much each character knows. One of the more underrated Netflix thrillers, The Invisible Guest comes from Spanish director Oriol Paulo and stars Mario Casas and Ana Wagener. The film had a lukewarm response in Spain when it was released, but since then, it has found popularity in international markets, and since 2016, there have been six remakes in different languages.

This murder mystery thriller begins with businessman Adrián Doria (Casas) getting released on bail after being arrested for the murder of his lover, Laura Vidal (Bárbara Lennie). Adrián was found in a hotel room unconscious with his wife dead in the bathroom and the doors locked from the inside. When a mysterious witness is set to come forward and prove Adrián culpable, Adrián's lawyer brings in an...

When you purchase through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Missing You is a mystery thriller drama series created by Victoria Asare-Archer. Based on the 2014 novel of the same name by author Harlan Coben, the Netflix series follows detective Kate Donovan, who finds her missing fiancé on a dating app ten years after he supposedly disappeared. Missing You stars Rosalind Eleazar, Jessica Plummer, Richard Armitage, Lenny Henry, Steve Pemberton, Marc Warren, Samantha Spiro, Lisa Faulkner, Mary Malone, and Ashley Walters. So, if you loved the dark secrets, thrilling story, and compelling characters in Missing You, here are some similar shows you should check out next.

Fool Me Once (Netflix) Credit – Netflix

Fool Me Once is a British mystery thriller drama series created by Danny Brocklehurst, Charlotte Coben, Yemi Oyefuwa, Nina Metivier, and Tom Farrelly. Based on the 2016 novel of the same name by Harlan Coben, the Netflix series follows Maya Stern,...

Nothing reels you in quite like a locked-room mystery. Throw in a web of lies, deceit, and a race against time, then youve got something that truly keeps viewers on the edges of their seats. In a nutshell, thats what The Invisible Guest or Contratiempo in its original Spanish title delivers. Directed by Oriol Paulo, the master of layered and intricate storytelling, the film promises to be a murder mystery. However, it doesnt just stop there, it dives into puzzling realms and creates a narrative where every single piece counts. At the center of it all is Adrian Doria (Mario Casas), a not-so-shabby businessman whos found locked in a hotel room with the lifeless body of his lover, Laura Vidal (Brbara Lennie). All fingers are pointed at him considering the damning evidence of a sealed room with no extra entry/exit points.

The term premonition basically refers to a very strong feeling that something bad is gonna happen in the foreseeable future. The Last Night at Tremore Beach, Netflix’s latest Spanish import, can be described as an almost nine-hour exposition of premonition. All the eight episodes of it are directed by Oriol Paulo, a man who has made a career out of stories where premonition often plays a very important part. Paulo is no auteur, but he has a very distinctive style and handles genre filmmaking in a very pulpy but polished manner. And most of his stuff is very watchable, and I must say entertaining. The Last Night at Tremore Beach is no exception either. In fact, I would even say it’s the most Oriol Paulo joint of all Oriol Paulo joints, if that makes any sense to you. I am going to simplify the series the best I can in this article.

You just finished The Last Night at Tremore Beach, the latest mind-boggling offering from Oriol Paulo, and now you don’t know what to do with life. Well, the only way to fill the void is to start something similar, and that’s why you’re here. So in this article, I am going to suggest certain movies and shows that you might consider watching if you enjoyed Oriol Paulo’s Netflix show. I hope all of you find something here.

Caddo Lake (2024)

Let us start with something from the very recent past. I could have just suggested Dark instead, but assuming many of you have already seen that show, I urge you to give Caddo Lake a try. Yes, the latest M. Night Shyamalan-produced horror-thriller takes a whole lot of ideas from the iconic Netflix series, but the good thing about the movie is that it also implements the ideas really well.

The Last Night at Tremore Beach has dropped on Netflix, and the show has everything it takes to become the next sensation for the streaming service. It is directed by none other than Oriol Paulo, who gained quite a reputation thanks to the 2016 blockbuster The Invisible Guest, along with The Body, (2012) Mirage, (2017) God’s Crooked Lines, (2022) and the Netflix miniseries The Innocent (2021). The man’s work speaks volumes, and it can safely be said that The Last Night at Tremore Beach pretty much justifies the hype. The series focuses on Alex, a composer who moves to a coastal town after a fatal accident to get his mojo back. Obviously, it is much more than that. In this article, we are going to take a closer look at the cast and the characters they play in the show.

Spoilers Ahead

Javier Ray as Alex

Actor Javier Ray – whose most notable work so...

Oriol Paulo has made a name for himself producing complex thriller films that keep audiences guessing. His work is known for imaginative plots and ambiguities that stay with viewers long after the final scene. In The Last Night at Tremore Beach, Paulo aims to once again unsettle and intrigue through an unorthodox tale of premonitions and past trauma.

We meet the protagonist Alex, a renowned composer, as he’s endured a personally disturbing incident and retreated to the seaside town of Tremore. Here on the isolated coast, Alex hopes to find peace in his work. But strange things begin occurring in Tremore, exacerbated when a freak lightning strike hits Alex one night. He suddenly experiences unnervingly realistic visions that may foretell events.

With this set-up, the series grabs our attention through its atmospheric setting and Alex’s mystifying new “gift.” We’re left wondering if his visions are psychologically-driven or something more,...

Directed by Oriol Paulo, The Last Night at Tremore Beach is a Spanish miniseries with never-ending twists and turns. Centered around music composer Alex, the psychological thriller dwells somewhere between his reality and imagination, making it at times impossible to figure out if something was happening in real-time or if it was just one of Alex’s vivid episode. Based on Mikel Santiago’s book by the same name, the truth surfaces in the last episode, as is typical of the genre. Stretched a little beyond necessary, The Last Night at Tremore Beach is a tedious watch.

Alex (known as Peter Harper in the text), once a renowned music composer, decided to move to a quaint small town called Tremore to rediscover himself. His obsession with his past had deteriorated his mental health, and his life began to unravel when he broke his fingers playing the piano while sleepwalking one night.

Cinephiles are definitely familiar with the name of Oriol Paulo, because he has made some of the best movies (and a show) set in the thriller genre. Paulo also happens to have a weird connection to India because almost everything that he makes eventually gets remade in Hindi. The first feature film written by Paulo was Julia’s Eyes, and it was remade as Blurr. His debut directorial was The Body, which was not only remade in Hindi but also in Korean and Tamil-Kannada. Paulo then went on to make The Invisible Guest, which gained such worldwide popularity that it got an Italian, a Hindi, a Telugu, a Korean, a Kannada, and a Chinese remake. Paulo’s Mirage got a Hindi adaptation in the form of Dobaaraa. Paulo received critical acclaim and several awards for God’s Crooked Lines, and his first Netflix miniseries, The Innocent, was a massive hit. So, it...

Director Oriol Paulo has made a name for himself by creating some of the most intricate puzzles out of seemingly ordinary mysteries and the Spanish thriller, The Body, is no exception. Some of his standout movies include The Invisible Guest and Gods Crooked Lines, and each brings to the forefront his ability to turn run-of-the-mill crime scenarios into mind-bending experiences. With The Body, Paulo builds on the eerie and disturbing premise of a missing corpse and creates an intriguing tale of revenge complete with unexpected twists and turns.

Only a handful of movies can successfully play with the concepts of perception and reality to a satisfying degree. Gods Crooked Lines delivers all that and more with its mind-bending narrative and general air of intensity. Directed by Oriol Paulo, known for his mastery of suspense, Gods Crooked Lines creates an atmosphere of paranoia and uncertainty against the backdrop of a 1970s psychiatric hospital. The narrative itself is centered on Alice (Barbara Lennie), a private investigator who goes undercover as a patient at a mental health facility to investigate a sketchy death. However, things get dicey as the case unravels into something a lot more sinister than your run-of-the-mill murder case.

What makes a good thriller? The answer is in how unpredictable it is. But that unpredictability does not necessarily come from its twists and turns, but the uniqueness of everything that leads to a glorious experience. The twisted Spanish thriller, Mirage, does exactly that. Directed by Oriol Paulo, who wrote the film with Lara Sendim, the mind-bending movie about time travel and a womans emotional quest is one such unique thriller film that is entertaining, engaging, and very enjoyable.

Prime Video is doubling down in Spain with a slate of new movies, drama series, docs and true-crime shows.

The streamer unveiled its latest slate at a Prime Video Presents event in Madrid last night, with thriller feature Zeta, scripted series Cochinas, a trio of unscripted shows and doc La Joia: Bad Gyal. Original series Reina Roja was confirmed for a third season, while live entertainment show Operación Triunfo has also landed a new season.

Ricardo Cabornero, Director at Prime Video in Spain and Portugal, claimed it had been a “record-breaking year” for the service in Iberia as he rolled out the titles.

Spy pic Zeta follows a Spanish Cni agent, Zeta, who is tasked with tracking down a former spy who participated in an undercover mission 35 years before, with a Colombian spook, Alfa, also trying to find him. The other five participants are murdered at the same time at different embassies around the world,...

Spain’s film & TV giant The Mediapro Studio is joining forces with Catalan pubcaster 3Cat and its online platform to co-produce “El Mal” (“Quiet”), a thriller series based on a true story, on a serial killer prowling the streets of locked-down Barcelona in March-April 2020.

Presented April 8 at MipTV, the eight-part series will topline two Goya Awards-winning actor David Verdaguer and double Goya nominee actress Ángela Cervantes.

The series is set to premiere initially on 3Cat while The Mediapro Studio Distribution owns the worldwide commercial rights.

Created and lead written by Lluís Alcarazo – creator of Oriol Paulo’s crime thriller “Night and Day” and doc feature “Special Case “Quiet” – tells the story of an investigation to uncover the identity of a serial killer who chooses their victims from among the most vulnerable members of the society: the homeless.

The plot unfolds at the end of April 2020, in the midst of the Covid-19 lockdown.

The film is a remake of a 2016 Spanish mystery thriller.

Chinese streamer iQiyi is to commence sales on a Chinese remake of mystery thriller The Invisible Guest and crime action film Suspect, starring Nick Cheung, at the Cannes market next week.

The Invisible Guest is directed by Chen Zhuo and stars Greg Hsu from recent time-travel romance hit Someday Or One Day alongside Janine Chang (The Soul) and Yin Zheng (Post Truth). It follows a woman who must work with a police officer to clear her name after her lover is found dead in a locked room.

The Spanish original,...

Internationally sourced programming and stories placed alongside local content could be a solution to bring audiences back to Indian cinemas, a high-powered panel debated.

The panel was part of Indiantelevision.com’s annual industry event, The Content Hub, that recently concluded in Mumbai. Mayank Shroff, head of film distribution at Cinepolis, the Indian division of Latin American exhibition giant Cinepolis, said that while footfalls were back to 85% of pre-pandemic days, an innovative approach is required to bring the rest of the audiences back.

Shroff pointed to the success of Makoto Shinkai’s anime film “Suzume,” which accounted for 20% of the Cinepolis box office over the past weekend and “Evil Dead Rise,” which also pulled in decent numbers, both in the face of stiff competition from Eid holiday release “Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan,” starring superstar Salman Khan. Shroff also said that there was demand for Korean films and K-pop concerts,...

Mario Casas, one of Spain’s biggest film and TV stars, and Goya Award winner actress Anna Castillo, will headline “Escape,” the new film by writer-director Rodrigo Cortés.

Produced by Adrián Guerra and Núria Valls at Barcelona-based Nostromo Pictures, “Escape” is a free adaptation of same-title novel penned by Spanish author Enrique Rubio.

Nostromo announced the new film project after completing an intense 2022, in which the company lensed seven films and released two more titles – Marçal Forés’ “Through My Window” and Oriol Paulo’s “God’s Crooked Lines” – both achieving a standout global reach.

“Escape’s” story turns on N., a young man who wants to live in prison and will do whatever it takes to get there, raising questions such as if those who care about him will get to stop him from committing increasingly serious crimes and how far will the judge go to not grant him his proposal.

In line with most other major markets in continental Europe, boosted by a standout bow for “Avatar: The Way of Water” Spain’s 2022 box office surged 49 over 2021 to €379 million (405.5 million by current exchange rates), Comcast Spain announced Friday. Total admission came in at 61.2 million.

Results, however, despite an upbeat year for Spanish movies, are still sizeably down, by 39, on Spain’s average pre-pandemic 2015-19 total box office of €596 million (637.7 million), Comcast estimates.

In comparison, in 2022, the U.K. was still 28 down compared to the 2015-19 average box office, France was 32 off, Germany 34 and Italy a whopping 54 down, according to Comcast calculations.

Bowing Dec. 16 in Spain, Disney’s “Avatar” has roared to €21.86 million (23.40 million) and 3.2 million admissions through Dec. 29, overhauling Universal’s “Minions: The Rise of Gru” (22.23 million) and “Jurassic World: Dominion” (19.43 million).

Spain’s “Father There is Only One” 3, co-written, directed and starring Santiago Segura, ranked No. 4 (16.70 million). Having also...

Indonesian action comedy The Big 4, directed by Timo Tjahjanto, has entered Netflix’s Global Non-English Film chart at number two for the week December 12-18 with 16.4 million hours viewed.

The Netflix Original has also entered the Top 10 Country Film list in 53 countries, including Indonesia where it is the number one film. Spanish drama God’s Crooked Lines, directed by Oriol Paulo, is currently the number one global non-English film in its second week of release.

“What a great honor to have my work recognized across the globe, a particularly Indonesian story that’s close to my heart,” said Tjahjanto. “It is thrilling to witness how the story can resonate and travel the world, which is made possible by Netflix.”

The Big 4 revolves around a by-the-book female detective who investigates the death of her father and follows a clue to a remote tropical island, only to find out his true...

Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s ’The Beasts’ has 17 nominations.

Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s The Beasts leads the nominees for Spain’s prestigious Goya awards, with 17, followed closely by Alberto Rodríguez’s Prison 77 on 16.

The Beasts, which had its world premiere at Cannes, centres around a French couple who cause tensions in the local village to which they move. The psychological thriller is nominated in all major categories including best film where it lines up with Prison 77, Alauda Ruiz de Azúa’s Lullaby, Pilar Palomero’s La Maternal and Carla Simón’s Golden Bear winner Alcarràs.

Scroll down for the full nominations

Alcarràs is...

Dobaaraa

Starring Taapsee Pannu, Pavail Gulati, Rahul Bhat

Directed by Anurag Kashyap

Time travel has always been tricky on screen. It has never looked more tangled and confounding than Dobaaraa, a time-travel saga trapped in transit, and so frozen in its own inner conflicts that one feels all travel should be banned indefinitely.

Taapsee Pannu wakes up one morning looking suitable bewildered. We know the feeling. It’s the confusion we felt after watching Anurag Kashyap’s Bombay Velvet. The puzzle piles up quicker than rubble at a construction site. It is up to us to pick our way through the stockpile of confusions.

Essentially the plot is a mindboggler. There is a 12-year old boy from the 1990s who connects with Taapsee Pannu twenty years later through an old television set. Their bonding is a mix of déjà vu and dejaa-more-confusion.

In this way Doordarshan meets time travel in...

Who doesn’t like a good murder mystery, especially one that keeps you on the edge of your seat guessing who the killer is until the credits roll? Based on the 2017 Spanish film The Invisible Guest directed by Oriol Paulo but with a revamped ending, writer/director Yoon Jong-seok’s South Korean thriller Confession had its Canadian Premiere at this year’s Fantasia International Film Festival. Confession masterfully tells the story of a man suspected of murder through a series of mind-bending flashbacks leading to a transcendent final act.

Confession stars So Ji-sub as Yoo Min-ho, a man suspected of killing his mistress Kim Se-hee, played by Jin-Ah Im. Yoo claims he’s innocent, but he appears to be guilty after he was found in a locked hotel room with his dead lover. When he is released on bail, he goes to a remote retreat to meet with his new attorney,...

Further titles include Mikel Gurrea’s ‘Suro’, Pilar Palomero’s ‘La Maternal’ and TV series ‘Offworld’.

A total of 18 Spanish productions have been selected for the 70th San Sebastian Film Festival, running from September 16-24, including Fernando Franco’s The Rite Of Spring (La Consagración De La Primavera).

This is Franco’s third feature, following the Silver Shell for best actress received by Marian Álvarez for 2013’s The Wound (La Herida) and special screening title Dying (Morir) in 2017.

The Rite Of Spring (La Consagración De La Primavera) follows the meeting between an 18-year-old girl, played by Valèria Sorolla, and a young boy with cerebral palsy,...

Moving waves on Spain’s film-tv scene when it launched in early May, Beta Fiction Spain has unveiled its first project as a producer, “Dolores,” a portrait of Spain’s Dolores Ibarruri, a worldwide icon of the workers’ movement and struggle against fascism.

The feature film is inspired by “Pasionaria. La vida inesperada de Dolores Ibárruri,” a question-posing non-fiction book by Spanish historian Diego Díaz Alonso published in 2020.

Underscoring Beta Fiction Spain’s ability to attach best-of-class Spanish talent, the screenplay for “Pasionaria” is being penned by two of Spain’s foremost film-tv scribes, Alejandro Hernández, co-writer of Alejandro Amenábar’s “While at War” and Mariano Barroso’s “What the Future Holds,” and Michel Gaztambide, a writer on Julio Medem’s milestone 1992 debut “Cows,” Enrique Urbizu’s best picture Goya winner “No Rest for the Wicked” and Freddy Highmore heist thriller “The Vault,” the second highest-grossing Spanish movie of 2021.

Díaz Alonso...

“Alcarràs,” from Catalonia’s Carla Simón, won Berlin’s top Golden Bear in February. “One Year, One Night,” from Catalan Isaki Lacuesta, also played in main competition. This May “Pacifiction,” from Albert Serra, another Catalan, has scored a competition berth at Cannes.

Thanks to these three titles, Catalonia has more directors this year in the key section at Europe’s two biggest festivals than Italy (2), Germany (1) or the U.K. (none at all). Other Catalan productions to play at Cannes: Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s “The Beasts” in Premiere and Anna Fernández’s “I Didn’t Make It to Love Her,” a Critics’ Week short.

If big fest selection is any measure, with just 7.6 million inhabitants and Barcelona as its capital, Catalonia is building as an upscale European movie powerhouse.

The build, however, is far broader based. In the pipeline, all from Barcelona-based Nostromo Pictures, are major Netflix titles such as David...

From Berlin Golden Bear winner ‘Alcarrás’ to Cannes Competition title ‘Pacifiction,’ these projects will represent Catalonia at Cannes.

Alcarràs

Director: Carla Simón

The 2022 Berlin Golden Bear winner, a family farm drama marking the flagship title for Catalonia’s newest generation of cineastes.

Sales: MK2 Films

Amazing Elisa

Director: Sadrac González-Perellón

The next from 2017 BiFan Grand Jury Prize winner González- Perellón (“Black Hollow Cage”), once more mixing fantasy and family dynamics as Elisa, 12, seeks revenge after her mother’s tragic death. La Charito Films produces.

Sales: Filmax

The Beasts

Director: Rodrigo Sorogoyen

One of 2022’s most awaited Spanish titles, selected for Cannes Premiere, a Galicia-set thriller from Oscar-nominee Sorogoyen (“Mother”), produced by Arcadia, Caballo Films and Le Pacte.

Sales: Latido Films

The Communion Girl

Director: Víctor García

Film Factory’s genre play for Cannes: A revenge thriller drawing on an urban legend about a girl in a communion dress.

Sales: Film...

Anurag Kashyap’s “Dobaaraa” has been set as the opening night film of the London Indian Film Festival. Despite its name, the festival will play at venues across the U.K., and will present 24 features and 18 shorts.

“Dobaaraa” is a supernatural thriller that Liff describes as involving a young woman trapped between two lives in different decades. Kashyap has previously told Variety that “Dobaaraa” is a Hindi-language adaptation of Oriol Paulo’s 2018 Spanish-language film “Mirage.” It stars Taapsee Pannu, an actor known for her eclectic choice of projects.

In “Mirage,” a 12-year-old boy witnesses a death during a thunderstorm and is killed himself. Twenty-five years later the woman who moves into the same apartment is connected to the boy through a television set during a similar storm and has the opportunity to save his life.

“Dobaaraa” was produced by Shobha Kapoor and Ektaa R Kapoor, through Cult Movies, a new...

With “Confession” South Korean director Yoon Jong-seok presents his second thriller after “Marine Boy” (2009). It is a remake of “Contratiempo” Spain’s mystery thriller master Oriol Paulo. After an Italian and an Indian version of the story, Yoon now presents his own interpretation. This suspenseful and smartly constructed film was a worthy closing for the Udine Far East Film Festival.

“Confession” screened at Udine Far East Film Festival

Yoo Min-ho (So Ji-sub) wakes up in a hotel room. His mistress lies on the floor, dead. Since the room was closed from the inside and there is no trace of an intruder, the police is sure that Yoo is the murderer. But he claims his innocence. Thanks to his wealthy family in law, he can put some strings and gets out of prison until it comes to trial. Together with a famous attorney, Yang Shin-ae, Yoo wants to proof he’s not the culprit.

Spanish director Alauda Ruiz de Azúa, who swept the board at March’s Málaga Film Festival, has wrapped shooting on her sophomore feature, “Eres Tú,” a Netflix’ romantic comedy produced by Antonio Asensio and Paloma Molina at Zeta Studios ­­– the Madrid-based company behind phenomenon “Elite.” Miriam Rodríguez executive produces.

After distributing Almodovar and signing up J.A. Bayona for real-life disaster drama “Society of the Snow,” Ruiz de Azúa’s attachment to “Eres tú” marks another association with a prestige director by Netflix in Spain.

Netflix Spain already accounts for three of the five most watched non-English Netflix movies ever: “The Platform,” “Below Zero” and “Through My Window.” It is, however, progressively diversifying its slate of series, movies, documentaries and TV shows by incorporating different creators profiles to create potential crowd-pleasers.

“Eres tú” follows Javier who, when 16 and kissing a girl for the first time, discovers that he had a gift of romantic clairvoyance.

After more than a two decades relationship, media conglom Atresmedia Group and the Málaga Film Festival have grown what looks like a unique case of symbiosis in the Spanish film-tv industry.

Atresmedia, a driving force in Spain’s film and TV sectors, joined the Málaga Festival as an official sponsor in 2000.

The DeAPlaneta-controlled broadcaster and Málaga, today Spain’s biggest festival dedicated to local and Latin American film and TV, have been faithful witnesses of the evolution of the Spanish film and TV industry.

The relationship has benefited both partners.

The Málaga Festival launched in 1998; one year later, a law began to oblige Spanish broadcasters to invest 5% of their annual revenues in local and European films. Broadcasters’ relevance in Spanish film financing rapidly multiplied.

Atresmedia -until 10 years ago Antena 3- started by tabling an economic contribution to the festival budget. At the same time, part of its annual...

Netflix has recently released Spain’s first film using LED volume technology, teen romantic drama “Through My Window” (“A Través de mi Ventana”).

Produced by Adrian Guerra’s Nostromo Pictures alongside sister company Orca Studios, the Spanish-language film features real-time rendered CG scenes shot in-camera as part of its production.

Its LED volume technology is the same ground-breaking virtual production process utilized by Industrial Light & Magic (Ilm) on Disney Plus’ hit series “The Mandalorian” and is considered by many as the most significant technological advance since green screen.

LED wall volumes replace static backgrounds in virtual studios with exterior or interior images that adjust in sync with camera movement, powered by video game PC engines, such as Unreal for “The Mandalorian.”

“We selected three scenes — the heliport, the penthouse interior and the elevator — as they had different challenges and needs,” said Guerra, adding: “We also shot some car sequences directly in the LED volume,...

Indian filmmaker Anurag Kashyap, a regular at Cannes, is currently in post-production on his next feature “Dobaaraa,” a Hindi-language adaptation of Oriol Paulo’s 2018 Spanish-language film “Mirage.”

Kashyap had read the script of “Mirage” before the film was made and was taken by it. This is the first time Kashyap has done a remake. “It is a nice, fascinating idea for me to delve into, I can’t come up with an idea like that,” Kashyap told Variety. “So I said, why not step outside my secure zone and attempt something.”

In “Mirage,” a 12-year-old boy witnesses a death during a thunderstorm and is killed himself. Twenty-five years later the woman who moves into the same apartment is connected to the boy through a television set during a similar storm and has the opportunity to save his life.

The film is headlined by Taapsee Pannu, one of India’s top actors,...

Netflix is about to introduce one of Mexico’s most legendary fictional families to the English-speaking world with “We Are the Nobles,” a new U.S. film adaptation of Mexican sensation “Nosotros los Nobles” (The Noble Family).

Eight years ago, Gaz Alazraki’s family comedy became a certified blockbuster, and still ranks as the second highest-grossing Mexican film of all time, behind “Instructions Not Included.” When Netflix was getting into original production outside of the U.S., its first effort was the series “Club of Crows,” created by Alazraki and inspired by his cinema super-hit.

Netflix is co-producing with Alazraki, who produced and directed the original, and Chris Columbus, Michael Barnathan and Mark Radcliffe from 26th Street Pictures, with whom the streamer has a larger overall deal, which also includes an untitled Chupacabra film with Jonas Cuarón, son and frequent collaborator of Alfonso Cuarón. Guido Rud, CEO and founder at FilmSharks,...

In 2006, the French feature film adaptation of Harlan Coben’s “Tell No One” set a precedent that the author’s work could not only be adapted to the screen, winning a slew of awards including four Cesars, but that it could do so outside of the stories’ native U.S.

In 2018, with a host of popular series and film versions of his stories having been produced across the U.K. and Europe, Netflix’s own adaptation of “Safe” prompted the company to lock down the creator to a five-year deal in which 14 of his novels are to be developed into original Netflix series or films. The first was another U.K. adaptation, this time of his novel “The Stranger” with Poland’s “The Woods” coming shortly after. Most recently, Coben teamed with Spanish thriller maestro Oriol Paulo on “The Innocent” (“El inocente”), which will premiere globally on April 30. Up next...

With 75 million copies of his novels in circulation around the globe, American author Harlan Coben has conquered the world of print with his popular brand of crime thrillers, including the Myron Bolitar series.

He is now making great strides into the new frontier of streaming via a one-of-a-kind deal with Netflix. First struck in 2018, the pact is a multi-million-dollar, five-year deal under the terms of which 14 of Coben’s books will be adapted into series or films for the online platform, with him overseeing the projects in various capacities.

Alongside its sheer scope, the deal is also unique in the fact that it was designed to be vibrantly international from day one, with the English-language novels being adapted into a variety of foreign languages via Netflix’s various production hubs across Europe. To date, adaptations have been produced in Poland (The Woods), Spain, and France, alongside English-language projects including The Stranger and the upcoming Stay Close.

Coben sometimes pens the adaptations himself, while other times he hands over the reins, particularly when the language is being changed, and acts as an EP. But as he explains to us below, he always has a creative handle on the material. As if he wasn’t busy enough, Coben recently set an adaptation of his YA novel Shelter at Amazon Prime Video, and he has further projects in the works at Apple and MGM International.

Deadline sat down with the prolific author and creator to chat about inking the deal with Netflix, why he loves seeing his work adapted into languages around the world, and what he has coming up.

Deadline: You are having a prolific run with your TV series, plus you are still penning new novels, where does your energy come from?

Harlan Coben: It’s a love of storytelling. I love doing this, it’s the only thing I’m good at. I have no other life. I was once asked, “if you weren’t a writer, what would you be?” And one of my friends said “a U.S. senator”. I was like, “oh please, I’d be a duvet cover”. I got nothing else.

Deadline: How did your Netflix deal first come about?

Coben: I had made a couple of TV shows in France for TF1 that had done well, and had gotten onto Netflix’s radar. We were making Safe together [Coben and his producers at Red Production Company] with Netflix’s international division, they wanted to make one show in France, a show in the UK, and then they came up with the idea [for the overall deal]. They want to do a lot of international stuff and my books sell well overseas. I sell more internationally than I do in the USA. I thought it would be a cool opportunity, to do a Netflix Spain show, Netflix France show, Netflix UK show, Netflix U.S. show. It was appealing to me.

The idea was to get interesting talent that you wouldn’t normally get for TV series. The Innocent director Oriol Paulo is a huge film director in Span. [Lead actor] Mario Casas is probably as big a star as there is in Spain. Netflix teaming up with me, it was a great synergy. I really love working with them, that’s unusual for a network or a streamer. I hate this term, but we had a shared vision of what we wanted to do. They weren’t going to pressure me into doing a season two, three, four or five. I could make it six episodes, eight or 10. Whatever we need to make the story work.

It’s also really exciting for me, and the talent involved, that on one day, the series drops all eight episodes in 190 countries. More than 200 million subscribers, how many people is that? All at one time. It’s a cool space to be in.

To have the opportunity to work with Netflix – with so many different people, in so many different countries, so many different cultures – if that doesn’t jazz you, you’re probably in the wrong business.

Deadline: Do you stay up for the series launch? How do you monitor it?

Coben: The show [The Innocent] is actually on my Netflix already. My wife and I watched all eight episodes to see how the dubbing was. I’ll wake up the next day and I’ll already be inundated with responses, which doesn’t happen with a book. Within two or three days, millions of people will have watched all eight episodes, I guess.

Deadline: It’s interesting that you say ‘I guess’, seeing as Netflix doesn’t provide numbers, but can you still gauge the response?

Coben: You can definitely feel it. They do give me some numbers, but I’m sworn to secrecy. The Stranger, for example, exploded but a little bit slowly, it kept resonating. There was a sense with my partners in England that you start to feel that momentum. How many calls you’re getting, how much noise is being made. For the most part I try to keep my head down.

Deadline: The original pact with Netflix was a serious commitment, what gave you the confidence to sign that?

Coben: I saw what they were about on Safe, and I still work with a lot of the same people. If I was trying to do TV series 20 years ago, which I wasn’t, the episodes would have to be 40 minutes, start with a crime, end with a crime, 22-episode seasons, that would not fit what I do. Netflix does. My next show in France [Gone For Good] is five episodes, The Innocent is eight, some episodes are 40 minutes, some are 50 minutes. For my kind of storytelling, streaming fits.

I don’t want to sound too Pollyanna here, but they are also doing really interesting things with their marketing. They change up the poster you’re looking at on the platform, to get new people to watch it. I am a guy who wants people to watch my shows. That sounds obvious but a lot of writers pretend they don’t care, I do care. Netflix has a tremendous worldwide platform and that’s cool.

Deadline: Do you have carte blanche regarding which novels get adapted?

Coben: Yes and no. They’ve never overruled me. On The Innocent, I met a bunch of teams, the team for Brazil, Germany etc. The head of the team from Spain said he really thought The Innocent would be perfect for them and Oriol Paulo. I met Oriol in New York and it just clicked, we were like brothers from day one. We then took the next step. It’s not like I say ‘I want to make X in Germany’. It’s co-operative.

I was in the UK for the premiere of The Stranger, then I flew down to Barcelona to watch them filming The Innocent. then I went to Paris to meet the team. How much fun is that?

Deadline: Have you always been interested in working internationally?

Coben: Before I was a writer I worked in the international travel business. It was a family business, my job was to fly over to different countries and help set up trips. I’ve always had a great affection for travel.

We are living in the golden age of television. Five years ago, no American would watch a foreign-language show. They just wouldn’t. There’s so much talent out there internationally now, the best stuff is really being done in pockets that haven’t had the U.S. saturation yet. Americans are such Americentric people, but we’re learning.

The shows are hybrids. You can still feel the Americanism, what I do, but they can also feel Spanish [with The Innocent].

Deadline: There is a huge appetite for Spanish-language content, particularly because there are so many Spanish-speaking people outside of Spain. There is also a large Polish diaspora but not to the same extent, how was the experience making The Woods?

Coben: It was cool. I can’t be as involved with some of the foreign-language ones, I do rely a lot more on the team over there. I really thought they did a great job. Next time I’d even push for it to be slightly more American, maybe faster paced, but I think it was moody and atmospheric and really interesting. I loved the cast, the direction, the two time periods idea. I’ve not been disappointed with one of the adaptations yet.

Some I am more hands-on with than others. I am actively involved in each one, especially at the beginning. For this one [The Innocent], me and Oriol discussed it from the beginning. I gave a lot of notes on the scripts. They’d send me the rushes by email every day, but I rarely had comments. I was more involved again during the editing.

Deadline: Is the goal still to do 14 adaptations in five years?

Coben: I don’t know. The Innocent comes out April 30, followed by Gone For Good in France, then Stay Close in the UK. Then I’m not sure. We’ll look to make future series in various countries, we’re developing three others right now that I can’t talk about, one of which is in a new territory. It might end up being more original ideas and fewer novels [Safe was based on an original idea by Coben]. It’s something Netflix and I will talk about and we’ll decide together.

Deadline: Or they’re going to call you up three months before the end of the deal and say ‘you still owe us six adaptations’…

Coben: That would be a lot of fun [laughs].

Deadline: You also recently made a deal with Amazon for your Young Adult novel Shelter, plus you have projects with Apple and MGM International too, how does that work with the Netflix deal?

Coben: The Netflix’s deal doesn’t cover my Myron Bolitar series, or its YA spin-off Mickey Bolitar series. Amazon is turning the YA books into series. I’ll let you know which streamer is best to work with by the end of it [laughs].

Deadline: Are you writing more novels at the moment?

Coben: Win just came out last month. Regarding what’s next – in The Stranger, ‘the stranger’ gets away, I’d never thought about what happens to them after it ends. I’m now writing this sequel to The Boy From The Woods and the stranger just popped up. This could end up being a sequel to both books, which wasn’t my intention. We’ll see how it all turns out.

Deadline: Any thoughts on taking a break?

Coben: I’m not very good with breaks. Life is about balance. I always like to write in the morning, I’m not in balance if I’m not writing, or thinking about writing or creating. I don’t see it stopping soon, but man plans, god laughs.

Netflix has announced a crop of upcoming projects in Spain, including three new drama series, two original films, and a pair of reality shows.

The series are:

Intimacy (Intimidad), which has been created by Verónica Fernández and Laura Sarmiento, directed by Jorge Torregrossa, Ben Gutteridge, Marta Font, Koldo Almandoz and stars Itziar Ituño, Patricia López Arnaiz, Verónica Echegui, Ana Wagener and Emma Suárez. The show follows four women who are forced to walk the thin line that separates public life from private life after sexual video of a politician with a promising future is released.

Baruca is a six-part action series created by Victor Sierra and Xosé Morais, directed by Óscar Pedraza, and starring Alberto Ammann and Luis Callejo. It is set in the psychiatric prison Monte Baruca on December 24, when a group of armed men surround the complex and cut of all communication with the outside world.

At one of its increasingly regular presentations, on Thursday Netflix Spain unveiled seven new projects including “If Only,” a Spanish adaptation of the Netflix Turkish original canceled before shooting by Turkish authorities.

Where once Netflix would host its presentations early in the year and announce its ambitions for the next 12 months, the platform’s original Spanish programming pipeline has grown to an extent that Thursday’s showcase only covers the next few months and hinted at plenty more to come in late 2021.

In both level and volume of production, the day’s announcements confirm Netflix as one of if not the, foremost investors in original Spanish series and movies, at the same as its talent pool is expanding to include ever more of the principal producers in Spain. New Netflix originals are now being produced by now-regular partners Nostromo, producers of “The Minions of Midas”; “Élite” producers Zeta Studios; “Money Heist...

Exclusive: Cush Jumbo (The Good Fight), James Nesbitt (The Missing), Richard Armitage (The Stranger) and Sarah Parish (Bancroft) have been set as cast in the series adaptation of Harlan Coben’s New York Times bestselling novel Stay Close at Netflix.

Nicola Shindler is exec producing the project for Studiocanal-owned Red Production Company, alongside Coben, Danny Brocklehurst and Richard Fee. Creator Coben is penning the eight-episode show alongside lead writer Brocklehurst and Fee. Juliet Charlesworth (Happy Valley) is series producer and Daniel O’Hara (The Stranger) is lead director and an exec producer.

In keeping with previous Coben adaptations at Netflix, Stay Close will be relocated from the U.S. to the UK. The story follows three people living comfortable lives who each conceal dark secrets that even the closest to them would never suspect; Megan (Jumbo), a working mother of three; Ray (Armitage), the once promising documentary photographer, now stuck in...

Where can Netflix Spain go after hit show “Money Heist”? On Thursday, it unveiled seven new Spanish originals, including “Feria” from “Elite” creator Carlos Montero, that sketch some kind of answer and roadmap for the U.S. streaming giant in one of its European production powerhouses.

Though Netflix in Spain has seen its biggest global hits in two iconic young adult series, “Money Heist” and “Elite,” now, more than ever before, as it transforms into a general entertainment service, the U.S. streaming giant is mixing it up.

The seven new originals, set for release from 2021, run a gamut from Netflix’s first short format series to its most ambitious doc series ever, “800 Meters,” to two features, a standup special and just one drama series.

“Our vocation is to go on exciting the world with the charisma, diversity and creativity of stories made in Spain, and contribute to maintaining Spanish...

Underscoring a larger perceived global market potential for Spanish movies, Warner Bros. Pictures Intl. España is upping its bet on Spanish film production, in volume, budgets and talent.

Once largely acquiring, and then releasing in Spain, around six national films annually, the Hollywood studio now plans to invest in, or officially produce, eight-10 features a year, with Spanish star-studded casts and top directorial talent.

Disclosed to Variety as Warner Bros. Spain unveiled its 2020-21 slate at Spain’s San Sebastian Festival, the bigger push into Spanish production will also see the Hollywood studio continuing to partner on a joint development fund with Atresmedia Cine – a title-by-title non-exclusive alliance which is emerging as a key production axis on the Spanish movie scene.

At San Sebastian, Warner Bros. España updated Spanish media on five Spanish titles on its 2020-21 release slate, all produced by Atresmedia Cine, in association with Buendía Estudios. It...

Hit by piracy and poor word-of-mouth, Disney’s live-action retelling of a popular Chinese myth has grossed $36.3m since its September 11 release.

Disney’s Mulan grossed just $6.5m on its second weekend in China, according to figures from Artisan Gateway, a decline of 72% over its opening, and placing it second in the weekend chart (September 18-20) behind local war epic The Eight Hundred.

Hit by piracy and poor word-of-mouth, Disney’s live-action retelling of a popular Chinese myth has grossed a cumulative $36.3m since its September 11 release. In comparison, The Eight Hundred, which grossed $17.7m on its fifth weekend, reached...

Disney’s “Mulan” made only $6.47 million over its second weekend in China, allowing it to be handily defeated once again by the local war epic “The Eight Hundred,” according to data from industry tracker Maoyan.

As of Sunday evening, the Disney title has earned a cumulative $36.5 million (Rmb 247 million) in the key territory. But “The Eight Hundred” led the Chinese box office by more than tripling those earnings, despite already being a month into its theatrical run.

“The Eight Hundred” has now earned a total of $425 million (Rmb 2.88 billion) since is Aug. 21 debut, making it China’s highest grossing film of the year so far. It is projected to continue on to a total box office of $446 million (Rmb 3.02 billion), according to Maoyan estimates.

In contrast, “Mulan” is currently projected to earn just $41 million (Rmb 278 million) — less than a tenth of that tally. The film accounted for about 1 in 5 screenings...

The Atresmedia Group, the original producer of Netflix global hit “La casa de papel” and one of Spain’s leading media conglomerations, has built a brand as a powerhouse in the country’s blooming scripted TV industry.

As other big international broadcasters, such as ITV in the U.K. and Rtl in Germany, Atresmedia, now 30, is looking to depend as little as possible on a increasingly declining ad market, priming content creation and pay TV opportunities, extending the economic life of its prolific production factory.

Its series’ reach exploded a decade ago, driven by successful international sales on primetime hits such as Bambú-produced “Gran Hotel” and Boomerang TV’s “The Time in Between,” underscoring a never-seen-before foreign appetite for Spanish originals.

A more dramatic shift started six years ago, boosted by Spanish TV series’ growing impact, when its management team kicked off the task of gradually consolidating Atresmedia as a digital company,...

Films used to world premiere at a festival, then open theatrically and then on pay TV. If they were from Spain, their first natural market would be France.

No more. Filmin, the high-flying upscale Spanish arthouse SVOD platform, will release on Friday the period shipwreck drama “Island of Lies,” a Spanish-Argentine co-production that marks the feature film debut of Spain’s Paula Cons, which already bowed successfully from May 14 on Argentine online channel CinearTV and VOD service Cinear.Play.

“Island of Lies” then bows in main competition from tomorrow at China’s Shanghai Festival, competing for its Golden Goblet.

Finally, it’s set for targeted theatrical release in the Spanish region of Galicia, in northwest Spain, where the action occurs, on Oct. 2.

Also distributed in Spain by Filmax, the feature is exciting large interest in China, where some Spanish movies have broken out to stellar box office trawls. For example,...

Exclusive: David Ayer has found his next film for Netflix. He is set to write, direct and produce with Chris Long through their Cedar Park banner an adaptation of the Harlan Coben bestseller Six Years. Netflix has just acquired the book for Ayer, who directed the Will Smith-Joel Edgerton-starrer Bright for the streamer.

As Louis Leterrier finalizes a deal to direct that sequel – Ayer’s co-wrote the script and is producing – the filmmaker will lean into the 2018 suspense novel.

The title refers to the number of years that passed since Jake Fisher watched Natalie, the love of his life, marry another man. With a heart broken, he throws himself into his career as a college professor, while keeping a promise to leave her alone while he simmers in a slow building rage. His hopes rise when he reads that her husband died. Unable to help himself, he...

Barcelona-based Rodar y Rodar, producer of Spanish horror titles such as J.A. Bayona’s “The Orphanage” and Oriol Paulo’s “The Body, has thrown its weight behind David Casademunt’s “The Beast,” boarding it as its main producer.

“The Beast,” which participated in Filmarket Hub’s 2017 Sitges Pitchbox event as well as Ventana Sur’s 2017 Blood Window, it was then was selected from 216 projects by first or second-time Spanish directors to be put through the 2018 Ecam Madrid Film School Incubator development program, before scoring a place at the Toronto Festival’s Filmmakers Lab. Casademunt had already turned heads with his Austin Fantastic Fest Grand Jury and Special Jury Award winning short, “Sleeping Death.”

Written with his regular co-writers Fran Menchón and Martí Lucas, “The Beast” is in a shack in the middle of nowhere, where a kid and his crazed mother glimpse a chilling presence watching them from the horizon...