I Will Find You author Harlan Coben weighed in on the Netflix show adapting his book — with some major changes and twists.
“I’ll give you the emotional answer,” Coben, 64, exclusively told Us Weekly about his reaction. “When I first go on set, when I first see Sam Worthington and Britt Lower and Milo Ventimiglia and the rest of the huge cast and crew, I think to myself, ‘I had this little idea in the corner of my house in New Jersey and now all these fantastic people are going to bring it to life.’”
Coben was delighted with the television adaption, revealing how surreal it has been to see it rendered in reality..
“Netflix pushed a button and it is in 190 countries and 300 million plus households,” he noted. “I still get really welled up when I think about that. I’m so lucky and it feels so special and I don’t want to let anybody down so we work really hard on these.”
The author also revealed his favorite change, adding, “I think the characters of Max and Sarah are different from the book. Also Adam. They’re different from the book and I kind of like what we did with them.”
I Will Find You, which is streaming now, follows David Burroughs (Worthington), who is wrongly imprisoned for the murder of his son then receives information that his son may still be alive. In addition to Worthington, Lower and Ventimiglia, the show stars Erin Richards, Jonathan Tucker and Madeleine Stowe. Clancy Brown, Logan Browning and Vas Saranga make up the rest of the cast.
“The biggest challenge for us was also our biggest asset,” creator Robert Hull recalled to Us about the experience. “Which is that very early on Harlan and I wanted to really shoot in the real world. We didn’t build a lot of sets.”
He added: “We were out on real streets, relocations, real stunts, real wirework, because even with visual effects, there’s nothing that can replace putting an incredible actor in a real location and just letting them bring it to life. Once you do that, your job’s kind of done.”
Hull spoke to Us about how the novel had to change for the screen, saying, “First and foremost, I’m a custodian of the novel and I was first and foremost a fan of Harlan’s and a fan of the novel. The DNA is there and the heart of the show is there if you read the book.”
It was important for the creative team to adapt where needed.
“That being said, past the premise we get there in a completely different way,” Hull concluded. “So the fun is just to take his story and see if we can find any way to tell it.”
I Will Find You is streaming on Netflix now.
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