Two of Germany’s biggest broadcasters have jump on The Five, the new crime series created by star author Harlan Coben.
Public network ZDF and commercial group ProSiebenSat.1 have secured free TV and pay TV rights, respectively, in Germany for the 10-part series, which stars Downton Abbey‘s Tom Cullen, together with Hannah Arterton, Lee Ingleby and Sarah Solemani
Studiocanal, which is handling world sales for the show, has already closed deals for The Five with much of Europe, including with Canal Plus for France, Telefonica in Spain and NPO in the Netherlands. Studiocanal’s production subsidiary RED originally produced the show for Sky One in the U.K.
The thriller, Coben’s first original work for television, follows a group of four friends whose lives are changed forever after a childhood incident in which one of their younger siblings, Jesse, disappears. The story picks up 20 years later, when Jesse’s DNA is found at a murder scene, suggesting he is still alive and out there, somewhere.
