“Dexter” and “The Blacklist” producer Daniel Cerone has boarded the U.K. adaptation of Japanese crime drama format “Connected,” Variety can reveal.
Cerone has joined as executive producer and is overseeing the U.K. writers’ room for the show, which is the first project to emerge from a co-production deal between U.K. production company Envision Entertainment and Japanese broadcaster Nippon TV.
Presented to potential partners for the first time on Tuesday at French drama festival Series Mania, “Connected” is currently looking for international partners, such as distributors, streamers or broadcasters. The first iteration of the format is set to air on Nippon TV in April.
Inspired by the likes of investigative podcast series “Serial,” the format is centered on a brand of sleuth known as a “homebound detective” (think investigative journalism group Bellingcat). Scouring the Internet for clues, the group gets to the bottom of crimes using advanced research skills. The Japanese show is based on Nippon TV’s series “Double Booking,” which also took place in an online environment.
Pitching the show in Lille, Envision CCO Michael Nakan — who co-developed the idea for “Connected” with Nippon TV creative director Itaru Mizuno — described it as such: “Where ‘Bones’ had skeletons and ‘CSI’ had crime scenes, we have the Internet.”
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The series, a clip of which was presented in Lille, has a strong procedural element and producers hope it will resonate globally. While its concept is very much in the spirit of movies such as the John Cho-fronted “Searching” or Rob Savage’s “Host” in its Internet-centric nature, Nakan explained that it cuts away frequently and includes sequences that aren’t necessarily moored in Internet sleuthing.
Envision and Nippon TV first partnered in July 2021 to co-produce scripted projects for the international marketplace.
