Exclusive preview of new Netflix series "I Will Find You"

0:00 This morning we're getting an exclusive sneak peek

0:02 of the new Netflix series I will find you.

0:04 It's based on the 2023 novel by New York Times best-selling author Harlan Coben.

0:09 Sam Worthington stars as David Burroughs,

0:11 a man in prison for killing his own son.

0:13 It's a crime he's always insisted he did not commit.

0:17 Everything changes when a family member visits him

0:20 in prison with surprising evidence suggesting his son,

0:23 Matthew, may still be alive.

0:25 Check it out.

0:27 I need to show you something.

0:28 [music] Tell me what you see.

0:33 Look closer, David.

0:38 A K H He looks like Matthew.

0:41 I know.

0:43 And I know how insane that sounds.

0:45 Just as insane as people thinking I killed my little boy in the first place.

0:49 There's a chance, no matter how impossible, that he is somehow still alive.

0:57 Then there's someone very dangerous behind this.

1:01 We are so excited to announce that I will find you debuts June 18th.

1:06 So press that little reminder on your Netflix.

1:08 Harlan Coben, who's also an executive producer, is here with us.

1:11 Good morning.

1:12 Good morning, guys.

1:12 How are you?

1:13 good.

1:14 So good.

1:15 Thank you.

1:15 Right now we're mad because they only gave us two episodes in the

1:18 And we usually like to watch everything.

1:21 Watch the whole thing.

1:22 That's what we do.

1:23 I was frustrated because I wanted more.

1:25 Even my wife said, "What are you doing?" Yeah, we're only watching two episodes.

1:30 My wife said, "Don't you know people?" Yeah.

1:32 So here's what's cool.

1:32 The first line of the book says,

1:34 "I'm serving the fifth year of a life sentence for murdering my own child.

1:38 Spoiler alert, I didn't do it."

1:41 Yes.

1:41 Where did that idea come from?

1:42 I kind of wanted to start a story that was the worst place you could be, right?

1:46 Imagine you're in jail for murdering your own child.

1:49 No, beating him to death with a baseball bat.

1:51 Yeah.

1:51 That was so gruesome.

1:53 Well, you don't see any of that.

1:54 Let's just make it clear.

1:56 [laughter] okay.

1:56 then to have a story like that starting that dark,

1:58 but to have a story with optimism and hope.

2:01 And imagine the moment you find out not only can you be prove your innocent,

2:04 but that he may still be alive.

2:06 And that hope just sung to me.

2:08 Now, we were told that Netflix picked up

2:09 on this even before you finished writing the book.

2:12 Did that give you pressure about this has to be better

2:15 than it normally is or you just thought I got this?

2:17 You know Miguel, I always have that pressure.

2:18 I always want the next thing to be better, same as you.

2:21 You want your next project to be better.

2:22 But yeah, they had we'd started to decide they started

2:25 to make this while I was still writing the book.

2:26 So I had to turn all that all noise off.

2:28 Cuz a book is a book and a TV series is a TV series.

2:32 But yeah, I always have that pressure.

2:33 I wanted this to be the best thing I'd ever

2:35 written and I think it maybe the best show we've done.

2:37 Let's talk about your cast.

2:38 The cast is so good.

2:39 You were talking about that.

2:40 Are you involved in the casting?

2:42 I am, very much so.

2:43 the casting.

2:43 So we have Sam Worthington, a lot of people know him from Avatar as the lead.

2:46 He's fantastic.

2:47 He brings such emotion and gravitas.

2:50 We got Britt Lower who many of you know as Helly R from Severance.

2:54 Um wow, what a find was we were able

2:55 to get her between seasons to play the second

2:58 lead or her sister-in-law Rachel who brings him

3:01 this message that maybe the son is still alive.

3:04 We also have Madeline Stowe.

3:05 We have Milo Ventimiglia I know.

3:08 From This Is Us.

3:09 He's fantastic and he comes in surprisingly you'll see in an episode he's

3:13 on episode one he comes in episode two and then he's there throughout.

3:17 I think he's going to really have fun with him surprise you.

3:19 Shawn McBride who was on Hawaii Five-O is in this.

3:23 So we have a

3:23 He's really good.

3:24 Yeah, he's a he's just lovely.

3:27 Oh yeah, I love that guy.

3:27 So I know you, I know your work.

3:30 As I'm watching this I'm anticipating twists

3:33 and I don't know when they're coming,

3:35 but I I say aloud "Harley?" As if you're setting me up.

3:40 So how do you decide when to put that twist

3:43 in there and when to throw off the reader or the viewer?

3:46 Ah, good question.

3:48 If I have a I will say this that there's not many twists I don't like.

3:51 So I throw in a lot of twists.

3:53 And this one especially I think.

3:55 But the key really for especially in this one

3:57 is there has to be emotion behind the twist.

4:00 I mean I don't want to tell you

4:01 anything but you're going to cry man episode eight.

4:03 You're going to stop during episode eight.

4:05 And I want that.

4:06 So, it's one thing to to fool you but if I

4:08 don't move your heart also the story is not going to work.

4:12 ask you a question Harlan.

4:12 Has your writing style changed now that so many

4:16 of your books are finding themselves on television or streaming?

4:19 I you're you're an executive producer.

4:21 Are you writing for TV or are you still writing

4:24 in the way that you did when you wrote your first book?

4:26 Still writing the same way as I did.

4:27 I think the the worst thing a novelist can do is

4:30 to write a book thinking ooh it's going to make a great movie.

4:32 It may make a great movie it may not.

4:34 I'm also willing to make a lot of changes if it's

4:36 not going to be a great movie as this is a book.

4:38 But a book has to be a book.

4:39 TV series has to be a TV series.

4:41 And the biggest mistake that new writers make is trying to make one the other.

4:45 You shouldn't do a TV series hoping it would be a book which would be weird.

4:48 But you should never write a book thinking ooh well I can make this a TV series.

4:52 It'll It'll ruin the book.

4:54 Books are interior.

4:54 They're different pleasure.

4:55 Yes.

4:56 Yes.

4:56 Yes.

4:56 Books are interior.

4:57 I love that.

4:58 We love your work.

4:58 Harlan is always my friend.

5:00 Uh as they say in basketball, he's on fire.

5:04 I will find you debuts June [laughter] 18th on Netflix.

5:07 So, hit that little reminder and Harlan your CBS series Harlan

5:10 Coben's Final Twist will be back for a second season this fall.

5:14 We can't wait for that.