Alan Wake is coming to a TV near you.
Alan Wake and The Witcher to receive television adaptations
Peter Calloway, a writer who has worked on Marvel spin-offs Legion and Cloak & Dagger, is developing a TV series based on Alan Wake. Remedy’s psychological horror game was written and directed by the studio’s creative director, Sam Lake, who will serve as an executive producer on the series. “Alan Wake was basically a TV series that was put into a game,” says Tomas Harlan from Contradiction Films, the series’ production company, in an interview with Variety. “That was Sam’s vision. It was influenced by The Twilight Zone, Northern Exposure, Twin Peaks. A lot of US TV. We plan to work closely with him on this. It’s his vision.”
Contradiction has suggested that we’ll be spending time with Alan before horrors start invading his life. “We can’t just start the show with him fully formed, running through the forest taking down lumberjacks,” says Harlan. “But the story will be in lockstep with the game.”
Elsewhere, The Witcher TV series is taking shape. Henry Cavill has been cast as Geralt, while Freya Allan will play Ciri. Writer Lauren S. Hissrich has also confirmed it will be shot in eastern Europe, which should provide an authentic backdrop for the Polish story.
Small screen
The show will follow Andrzej Sapkowski’s novels more closely than the games, but Tomasz Baginski, a cinematic director on all three Witcher games, will be directing at least one episode of the series.
Movies based on videogames are famously bad, but maybe the translation to TV will work better. Alan Wake is an unexpected choice, but with Sam Lake being involved in its creation, it should be at least faithful to the source material. Andy Kelly
“AlanWake was basically a TV series that wa s put into a game”