I’m a huge fan of thriller novelist Harlan Coben. I also acknowledge that his books all have basically the same idea: somebody vanishes or dies, then mysteriously is somehow back like nothing happened. If you’ve read his book Tell No One, or seen the excellent 2006 adaptation, that’s pretty much the way all of his stories go. And the same goes for Six Years, which is surprisingly being adapted by none other than David Ayer.
Ayer is set to write and direct an adaptation of Six Years for Netflix. The story, as usual, centers on someone who has vanished under mysterious circumstances. A college professor named Jake sees the love of his life, Natalie, marry another man. Six years later he attends the funeral of her husband, with hopes of reuniting with her (classy!!) only to discover that Natalie isn’t the dead man’s wife. Jake goes on an exhaustive search to find out what really happened to her.
It’s been a few years of ups and downs for Ayer. He wasn’t asked to return for sequels to Bright or Suicide Squad, but has kept busy with other projects. He’s currently wrapping up his latest crime flick, The Tax Collector, and has a remake of The Dirty Dozen on the way, not to mention another tank movie ala Fury.
Coben’s novels have recently been adapted in the Netflix shows The Stranger and Safe, but Tell No One remains the best of them all. Worth checking out if you haven’t yet. [Deadline]
