RACHEL:
00:00:41
I know. And I know how insane that sounds.
DAVID BURROUGHS:
00:00:45
Just as insane as people thinking I killed my little boy in the first place. There's a chance, no matter how impossible, that he is somehow still alive.
MATTHEW:
00:00:55
Wake up.
DAVID BURROUGHS:
00:00:56
Then this is someone very dangerous behind this. We are so excited to announce that I Will Find Youdebuts June 18, so press that little reminder on your Netflix. Harlan Coben, who's also an executive producer, is here with us. Good morning. Good morning, guys. How are you?
GAYLE KING:
00:01:13
It's so good. So good. Thank you. Nate and I were mad because they only gave us two episodes for the preview. That's right. And we usually like to watch everything. We want more. Watch the whole thing. That's what we do. I was frustrated because I wanted more. Even my wife said, what are you doing?
VLADIMIR DUTHIERS:
00:01:27
We're only watching two episodes.
GAYLE KING:
00:01:29
Your own wife says, don't you know people? Yeah. So here's what's cool. The first line of the book says, I'm serving the fifth year of a life sentence for murdering my own child. Spoiler alert. I didn't do it. Where did that idea come from?
HARLAN COBEN:
00:01:42
I kind of wanted to start a story that was the worst place you could be, right? Imagine you're in jail for murdering your own child.
GAYLE KING:
00:01:49
No, beating him to death with a baseball bat. Yeah. That was so gruesome. Well, you don't see any of that. Let's just make it clear. But then to have a story like that starting that dark, but to have a story with optimism and hope-- and imagine the moment you find out not only can you prove you're innocent, but that he may still be alive. And that hope just sung to me. Now, we were told that Netflix picked up on this, even before you finished writing the book. Did that give you pressure about this has to be better than it normally is, or you just thought, I got this?
HARLAN COBEN:
00:02:17
You know me, Gayle. I always have that pressure. I always want the next thing to be better. Same as you. You want your next project to be better. But yeah, we started to decide-- they decided to make this while I was still writing the book, so I had to turn all that noise off because a book is a book and a TV series is a TV series. But yeah, I always have that pressure. I wanted this to be the best thing I'd ever written. And I think it may be the best show we've done.
GAYLE KING:
00:02:37
Let's talk about your cast. The cast is so good. We were talking about that. Are you involved in the casting?
HARLAN COBEN:
00:02:42
I am, very much so.
GAYLE KING:
00:02:43
Talk about the casting.
HARLAN COBEN:
00:02:43
So we have Sam Worthington. A lot of people know him from Avatar. He's the lead. He's fantastic. He brings such emotion and gravitas. We got Britt Lower, who many of you know as Hely R. from Severance. Wow. What a find it was. We were able to get her between seasons to play the second lead or his sister-in-law, Rachel, who brings him this message that maybe the son is still alive. We also have Madeleine Stowe. We have Milo Ventimiglia from This Is Us. He's fantastic. And he comes in-- surprisingly, you'll see in episode two-- he's on episode one. He comes in episode two. And then he's there throughout. I think you going to really have fun with him, surprise you. Chi McBride, who was on Hawaii Five-0,is in this. So we have--
VLADIMIR DUTHIERS:
00:03:23
He's really good.
HARLAN COBEN:
00:03:24
Yeah. He's just lovely.
NATE BURLESON:
00:03:25
No nonsense.
HARLAN COBEN:
00:03:27
Oh, yeah. Love that guy.
NATE BURLESON:
00:03:27
So I know you. I know your work. As I'm watching this, I'm anticipating twists. And I don't know when they're coming. But I say out loud, Harlan, as if you're setting me up. So how do you decide when to put that twist in there and when to throw off the reader or the viewer?
GAYLE KING:
00:03:46
Good question. I will say this, that there's not many twists I don't like, so I throw in a lot of twists. And this one especially, I think-- but the key, really, especially in this one, is there has to be emotion behind the twist.
NATE BURLESON:
00:03:59
Of course. I mean, I don't want to tell you anything, but you're going to cry at episode eight. You're going to sob during episode eight. And I want that-- so it's one thing to fool you. But if I don't move your heart also, the story is not going to work.
VLADIMIR DUTHIERS:
00:04:11
Let me ask you a question, Harlan. Has your writing style changed now that so many of your books are finding themselves on television or streaming? You're an executive producer. Are you writing for TV, or are you still writing in the way that you did when you wrote your first book? Still writing the same way as I did. I think the worst thing a novelist can do is to write a book thinking, ooh, it's going to make a great movie. It may make a great movie. It may not. I'm also willing to make a lot of changes if it's not going to be a great movie as is a book. But a book has to be a book. TV series has to be a TV series. And the biggest mistake that new writers make is trying to make one the other. You shouldn't do a TV series hoping it would be a book, which would be weird. But you should never write a book thinking, ooh. I could make this a TV series. It'll ruin the book. Books are interior. They're a different pleasure.
GAYLE KING:
00:04:55
Yes, yes, yes.
VLADIMIR DUTHIERS:
00:04:56
Books are interior. I love that. We love your work, Harlan, as always, my friend. As they say in basketball, he's on fire. On fire. I Will Find Youdebuts June 18 on Netflix, so hit that little reminder. CBS series Harlan Coben's final twist will be back for a second season this fall. We can't wait for that.
