EXCLUSIVE: Netflix is developing a TV adaptation of The Castaways author Lucy Clarke‘s thriller The Surf House, about chaos in a traveler sanctuary in Morocco.
Industry and Tell Me Lies director Ed Lilly is behind the TV series, which comes from The North Road Company and Jessica Rhoades‘ Pacesetter Productions and is in development.
The Surf House is set high on the cliffs of Morocco and is based in a sanctuary for surfers and travellers chasing sunshine and waves. But the idyll hides a dark mystery, and when Bea washes in, seeking refuge after a dangerous encounter in Marrakesh, she soon gets caught in the current. A woman her age – who stayed in the same area, walked the same beaches, met the same guests – disappeared one year earlier, vanishing without trace, and her last known whereabouts was The Surf House.
Deadline understands the development is coming out of Netflix’s U.S. team. Amy Israel and Josh Stern are EPing for The North Road, and Rhoades and Alison Mo Massey are doing so for Pacesetter, along with Lilly.
The Surf House author Clarke is becoming something of a British Liane Moriarty. Two of her novels have been made into Paramount+ shows, The Castaways starring Sheridan Smith and No Escape, while The Hike was optioned by Studiocanal-backed Urban Myth Films.
Lilly, meanwhile, is an up-and-coming British writer-director who recently helmed six eps of Hulu’s Tell Me Lies and three of HBO and the BBC’s Industry. He directed 2020’s VS., a rites-of-passage indie movie starring Connor Swindells set in the UK rap battle scene. He is repped by Kaplan/Perrone.
Peter Chernin’s North Road, which was recently bought by Mediawan, is combining with Black Mirror EP Rhoades’ Pacesetter, which has offices in L.A. and London, to work on The Surf House development.
Deadline understands Pacesetter brought the idea to The North Road in the first instance. Rhoades recently spoke to us about upcoming projects including Bridgerton creator Chris Van Dusen’s TV adaptation of Elle Kennedy’s book Girl Abroad, the first project to come out of Pacesetter’s first-look with A24, and Mandy Moore erotic thriller Teach Me for Peacock.
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