Tanya Seghatchian Nicola Shindler c LFF Series Mania

Source: LFF / Series Mania

Tanya Seghatchian, Nicola Shindler

Nicola Shindler’s Quay Street Productions is teaming with Tanya Seghatchian and John Woodward’s UK outfit Brightstar to produce a five-part series called Playdate based on Alex Dahl’s novel of the same name for Disney+ UK.  French filmmaker Eva Husson, whose credits include Cannes 2021 title Girls Of The Sun, will direct. 

Playdate tells the story of a mother-of-two whose world is turned upside down when she agrees to let her nine-year-old daughter have a sleepover at her new best friend’s house. When she goes to pick her up the next day, she discovers the beautiful house where her daughter was supposed to be staying is a holiday rental and her daughter has disappeared. A manhunt across Europe follows.

Filming will take place across the UK and France this summer.  

Catherine Moulton has written the script. Husson will also produce with James Dean. 

”Playdate is a very rare beast – a thriller that combines beautifully crafted edge-of-the-seat suspense with unexpected plot twists and truly powerful drama focused on these strong women who are intent on hiding their darkest secrets from the world,” says Seghatchian and Woodward in a statement,

It is the latest original to emerge from the Disney+ UK team, which last week commissioned Suspect: The Shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes from writer Jeff Pope and Etta Pictures. 

Brightstar’s credits include Jane Campion’s Bafta-winning The Power Of The Dog for Netflix. It is also producing Netflix’s upcoming drama Kaos from End of the F**king World writer Charlie Covell.  

Quay Street Productions is working on Fool Me Once, an adaptation of a Harlan Coben thriller, among many other projects.  

Devereaux said: “Playdate is a brilliantly twisty thriller with a terrifying, instantly relatable hook. We are very proud to be working with celebrated producers, visionary director Eva Husson and rising star writer on this must-see thriller.” 

Shindler added that the story “tells the story of fascinating, relatable and complex women in a situation that is any parent’s worst nightmare.”