David Zabel To Adapt Dutch Drama For ABC
EXCLUSIVE: With Red Widow landing on ABC’s schedule for next season, the network has put in development another drama project based on a Dutch format. Former ER showrunner David Zabel is set to write and executive produce Betrayal, a serialized drama based on the 2011 Dutch series Overspel, produced by and runs on Netherlands’ public broadcaster Vara. It centers on an unhappily married woman who begins a torrid affair with the lawyer for a powerful family. When he turns out to be the legal counsel for a murder suspect who is being prosecuted by her husband, the affair and the case begin a spiraling series of betrayals with cataclysmic results for everyone involved.
Zabel is executive producing Betrayal with Rob Golenberg and Alon Aranya who are also behind Red Widow. Like Betrayal, Red Widow, which is based on the Dutch series Penoza, attracted a big-name writer, Twilight‘s Melissa Rosenberg. Both Betrayal and Red Widow are produced by ABC Studios (Red Widow is co-produced by Endemol Studios). In addition to Betrayal, ABC Studios-based Zabel has sold another project to ABC this season, a Tom Sawyer/Huckleberry Finn drama set in New Orleans which he is co-writing with Jason Richman for ABC Studios and Temple Hill. Here is a trailer for Overspel. It is in Dutch but follows the main plotline and does give a feel for the series’ narrative.
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