You heard that right. Apple orders Echo 3 for its OTT service. But it is not the Amazon product like you think and is an American version of the Israeli thriller TV series When Heroes Fly.
It’s official now that Echo 3 is headed to Apple TV+. The series, set to be adapted in English and Spanish has been ordered by the streaming service and will consist of 10 episodes.
The show is still in the early stages so there’s no hint of a production schedule or an expected premiere date.
Revealing more about the new Echo 3 series in a press release, Apple TV+ noted, “Apple has given a straight-to-series order…written by Academy Award-winning producer and writer Mark Boal (The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty) that will be produced by Apple and Keshet Studios.”
What’s it about?
The original series starts after the Six-Day War — or the Third Arab-Israeli War — in 1967, with four boys and one girl living in the Israeli city of Haifa.
The four men grow apart over the years but reunite nearly three decades later to rescue the woman (who was also one of the boys’ girlfriend) from a religious cult in America.
As per the official synopsis, the series will be centered around Amber Chesborough, a brilliant young scientist who goes missing along the Colombia-Venezuela border.
As the emotional center of her middle-class American family, Amber’s disappearance triggers her brother and her husband – two men with a long military experience and complex histories – set out to find her.
When heroes fly to her
The series is set in South America and is the latest project to join a growing lineup of premium international series making their global debut on Apple TV+.
The Israeli series When Heroes Fly is itself based on the 2008 bestselling novel of the same name, written by Amir Gutfreund. The 2018 series is available for streaming on Netflix and has taken a few creative liberties in adapting from the book.
According to showrunner Omri Givon, from the above video interview for World Screen, he focused on the latter part of the book instead of creating a straight adaptation. Israeli author Gutfreund died from cancer at the age of 52 in 2015.
According to Israeli publication Haaretz, he was a veteran himself and served in the Israeli Air Force for 20 years.
Haaretz further reports that he was a published author while in the air force and he continued to write after his retirement, with When Heroes Fly (aka Heroes Fly To Her) being published in 2008.
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