It’s being reported that one of Remedy Entertainment’s most cherished properties next to the first two Max Payne games is getting a TV adaptation. The most surprising thing about the news is that the Alan Wake TV show will have the game’s original creative director and writer, Sam Lake, working as the executive producer.
According to Variety, the show is in development with Peter Calloway from Legion and Cloak & Dagger at the helm, who will also work as the showrunner and writer. The show will be produced by Contradiction Films, which is currently aiming to shop the show around by October via Tomas Harlan.
According to Harlan, he told Variety that they’re planning on adapting the show to the format featured in the game, which was, ironically enough, structured like an episodic television show based around a mystery-horror. Harlan explained…
“‘Alan Wake’ was basically a TV series that was put into a game. That was Sam’s vision. It was influenced by ‘The Twilight Zone,’ ‘Secret Window,’ Hitchcock, ‘Northern Exposure,’ a lot of U.S. Television. We plan to work closely with Sam on our this show. Sam is a huge part of this. This is his baby.”
The game came out back in 2010 for PC and Xbox 360, and had a follow-up expansion pack called Alan Wake’s American Nightmare.
According to Harlan, the show will not start where the first game ended, but instead will take place as Alan was just encountering the strange events, so that viewers will follow him on his journey into darkness.
Lake mentioned to Variety that they will be using the original game as the starting point and then go from there…
“The story of the original game is our starting point, the seed which will grow into the bigger story we’re exploring in the show. We’ll be expanding the lore of this crazy and dark universe and diving deeper into certain aspects of it than the game ever did.”
It’s also not out of the realm of possibility that the game may include the story from the unreleased Alan Wake 2, which never really came into fruition. Interestingly enough it was Hollywood who came knocking multiple times at Remedy’s door, as opposed to Remedy seeking out Hollywood. Eventually, after years of cajoling and multiple meetings, they finally got Remedy to sign off on the idea.
They didn’t talk casting, but hopefully they avoid the sort of casting catastrophe that Netflix’s crew ran into when they attempted to cast a black minority as Ciri.
So long as the casting stays true to the game and doesn’t dive into the diversity agenda, it may turn out okay, especially with Sam Lake heading up the show.
(Thanks for the news tip Correctus)
