Alan Wake Is Getting A TV Series

Way back in 2010 Microsoft's aim to keep the Xbox 360 ahead of the PS3 included sauntering out a bevy of exclusives from around the world. The company had sought out a variety of studios to work on a number of high-profile games for the console, including Mistwalker for cult classics like Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon, and Epic Games for the Gears of War series. One game that stood out among the bunch was an exclusive made by Remedy Entertainment called Alan Wake. The action-horror game was decidedly different from everything else on the market at the time, and a lot of that was because it lent itself to a television-style format in the way the story unfolded. Fast forward eight years later, and now Alan Wake has been tapped for a television series that's about to be shopped around to TV and streaming networks.

According to an exclusive interview over on Variety, it was revealed that Contradiction Films and Remedy Entertainment are in the process of developing the titular game into a TV series. Cloak & Dagger and Legion creative Peter Calloway has signed on as the showrunner and writer, while Alan Wake's own creative director, Sam Lake, will head up the show as the executive producer. Yes, they're actually bringing on one of the original creators of the game to handle the production of the show.

This is a unique twist on the way Hollywood typically handles video game properties, but that's because Contradiction Films' partner, Tomas Harlan, has been working around the clock to ensure that the property is handled properly. Turning the game into a Hollywood property was actually part of Harlan's goal all along, but Remedy wasn't too keen on the idea. This is likely because of how Hollywood has handled video game movies in the past, such as Double Dragon or the infamous Super Mario Bros., film.

However, after becoming friends with the creatives at Remedy, Harlan eventually convinced them to move forward with a video game based on Alan Wake.

This actually makes a ton of sense for anyone who played the game because the entire game was based on the concept of a Twilight Zone-style television show, with strong inspiration from Hitchcock and David Lynch's Twin Peaks. Each chapter was broken down exactly like a television show, with intro and outro sequences and recaps of what happened in the last chapter. To say that the game was similar to a TV show is somewhat of an understatement given that the story basically unfolded as if you were watching... a TV show.

Quite naturally a lot of people were curious if the show would pick up after the events of the original game or the DLC follow-up, American Nightmare, but according to executive producer Sam Lake, the show will start where the game started and will follow the story from there.

Whether or not the show moves into new territory that would take place where Alan Wake 2 would have remains to be seen, but it's not out of the question according to the creative leads behind the project.

Harlan is currently seeking to get a network to pick up the project in October, and I can definitely see Netflix ordering an eight to ten episode season. If it does well maybe we'll see other Remedy properties get the television treatment as well, such as the TV-like third-person shooter Quantum Break?