London – Europe’s leader in production, rights acquisition, distribution and international sales of TV series and feature films, StudioCanal, has concluded a landmark deal in Japan for Harlan Coben’s hit original drama The Five.

The Five, a 10-part thriller created exclusively for television by the nine-time #1 New York Times bestselling author, will make its debut in Asia on Japan’s pay TV broadcaster Wowow. The drama will launch in February 2017 on its popular general entertainment channel Wowow Prime.

This latest deal adds to recent international acquisitions of The Five by Italy’s TIMvision and Radio-Canada for French-speaking Canada, alongside France’s CANAL+, Israel’s Yes DBS, the Netherlands’ NPO, New Zealand’s SKY, Australia’s SBS 1 and Spain’s Telefonica.

Produced by RED Production Company, The Five is an original commission for the UK’s Sky 1. The series stars Tom Cullen (Downton Abbey), O-T Fagbenle (The Interceptor), Lee Ingleby (The A Word), and Sarah Solemani (The Wrong Mans). The screenplay is by BAFTA and Emmy Award-winning writer Danny Brocklehurst and director is Mark Tonderai. Following the success of The Five Sky has commissioned eight-part crime series THE FOUR, an original story created by Harlan Coben and written by Danny Brocklehurst. Produced by RED Production Company, THE FOUR is a stand-alone, character-driven thriller that tells the chilling story of an idyllic family community irrevocably shattered by secrets, lies, suspicions and misguided trust.