Safe centers on Tom (Hall), a British pediatric surgeon who is left to raise two teenager daughters on his own following the death of his wife. All seems safe — as the title implies — in their gated community until the eldest daughter sneaks out to attend a party, and there’s a murder and disappearance that brings secrets to the surface.
Hall is best known for his roles as the title character in Showtime’s popular series Dexter, on which he played a vigilante serial killer, and HBO’s Six Feet Under. Since Dexter went off the air in 2013, Hall has been relatively absent from acting, having taken on a series of small roles, as well as voice work in the series Star vs. the Forces of Evil. He also returned to his musical and stage-acting roots, appearing as Thomas Newton in the production of David Bowie’s musical Lazarus in 2015 and 2016. He even performed the song Lazarus, which appeared on David Bowie’s final album, Blackstar.
Also starring in the eight-part drama is Amanda Abbington (Sherlock). Safe will be produced by Red, StudioCanal’s production company. Danny Brocklehurst (Shameless, both the U.K. and U.S. versions) has penned the script, and the series is reportedly already shooting on location in Manchester and Cheshire in the U.K., with plans for a debut in 2018.
In addition to Netflix worldwide, the series will also be available through Canal+ in France.
This is not the first time Coben, a best-selling author, and Brocklehurst have joined forces — the two previously worked on The Five for Sky in the U.K. Safe, however, does mark the first original series by Red to be picked up for Netflix.
Nicola Shindler, who heads up Red, says Coben’s style of being “all about the hook of the story” lends itself beautifully to Netflix’s binge-friendly streaming format. She adds that Safe is about family and “how we build walls to keep out the bad people. But what if they’re on the inside? It’s about,” she continues, “how far you’d go to protect your family.”
Netflix has been ramping up its selection of foreign series, working with local partners on rights. Troy and Giri/Haji are two other original series that have been brought over from the U.K. Others include Suburra, a series that hails from Italy; Kingdom and Love Alarm from Korea; 3% (streaming now) from Brazil; Las chicas del cable (Spain); Sacred Games (India); Ingobernable (Mexico); and Dark (Germany.)
