Netflix confirms first Belgian original series

Netflix has confirmed its first Belgian original series, Into the Night, produced by Entre Chien et Loup.

Jason George (Narcos) has created and written the drama that will be directed by Belgian duo Inti Calfat and Dirk Verheye. George will also executive produce alongside Tomek Baginski and Jacek Dukaj.

Based on Dukaj’s novel The Old Axolotl, the story begins with a sudden solar event, as the sun inexplicably begins to kill everything in its path. On an overnight flight heading west from Brussels, a group of ‘lucky’ passengers and crew attempt to survive as they head for the safety of the night.

Baginski said of the project: “The idea is taken from Jacek’s Dukaj great book, The Old Axolotl, about transhumanism. What I loved most in this story was the inevitability of apocalypse and the idea that you can run from it in a plane with a group of strangers who don’t even speak the same language.

“We never really know people we travel with – to realize that maybe those people are now your tribe – people your survival depends on – this is a base for a great drama and a great thriller.”

Belgium offers a variety of funding options for filmmakers, led by the government-approved Belgian Tax Shelter, one of the few systems that applies to the whole country rather than to a particular language community.

There are many other funds and regional offerings across Belgium. In early 2018, the BBC and Lookout Point’s major period drama, Les Miserables, shot visually-appropriate parts of Brussels – with €200,000 of investment from Screen Brussels - and Ghent, as early 19th century France.