Midnight at the Pera Palace Lands at Netflix

Netflix has commissioned a new eight-part Turkish-language series, Midnight at the Pera Palace, from Red Arrow Studios-owned Karga Seven Pictures Turkey.

Production is underway in multiple locations in Turkey on the new series, which focuses on a young journalist and her encounter with the legendary Pera Palace Hotel in Istanbul. When she discovers that one of the rooms is a portal to the past, she finds herself in the middle of a political conspiracy against the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

Midnight at the Pera Palace is adapted from the award-winning non-fiction book of the same name written by Charles King, and is created for television by Emre Sahin, Kelly McPherson and Sam Anzel, written by Elif Usman, and directed by Emre Sahin. The series is executive produced by Sarah Wetherbee, Kelly McPherson and Emre Sahin for Karga Seven Pictures.

Emre Sahin, founding partner of Karga Seven Pictures, and the creator and director of the series, said: “As a lover of history and Istanbul, this project is a dream come true. The book did such a great job of telling the history of Turkey through the eyes of the hotel. In the series, we’ve built on that foundation and pushed the storytelling into an ambitious new dimension. The show is entertaining, thought-provoking and action-packed and like Istanbul, just when you think you’ve figured it out, it will endlessly surprise you.”

Pelin Distas, Netflix’s director of original content for Turkey, said: “At Netflix, we aspire to have best in class stories, across all genres. Therefore, we’re thrilled to diversify our slate of Turkish originals with such an exciting period adventure drama. We believe that Turkey is one of the major creative centers for great storytelling and we are looking forward to sharing this great story from the magical city of Istanbul to our members around the world.”