The Popular Video Game ALAN WAKE is Being Developed as Live-Action TV Series
If you’re a fan of the video game Alan Wake, you might be happy to hear that there is now a live-action TV series in development. The series is being developed by writer and producer Peter Calloway (Cloak & Dagger, Legion) who has signed on as showrunner and writer. The creator of the game, Sam Lake, has also come on board as executive producer.
They plan on shopping the series around to the networks and studios next month and apparently there’s already a lot of interest. While talking to Variety, producer Tomas Harlan said:
“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 story for Alan Wake followed a fictitious best-selling writer named Alan Wake who journeys to a small town in Washington state, where he hopes to rid himself of prolonged writer’s block. What follows is an increasingly surreal experience that seems to bring the plot from his last novel — which he has no memory of writing — to life.
The game leaned heavily on an episodic structure that delivered levels as if they were episodes in a television series and even features small interactions with in-game televisions that featured snippets of TV shows created for the game. This blending of game and TV helped to redefine a form of interactive storytelling.
Back in 2015 the creator of the game explained that he had big plans for the game and its story, saying:
“Definitely what we have mapped out is a longer thing than the first game and a sequel; there is more to it. In many ways, we see the universe as a bigger thing. Alan Wake is a very central character, but we have other characters around him like [friend and agent Barry Wheeler] and his wife Alice and Sheriff Sarah Breaker and other characters there. We feel this is a big universe to develop and explore in many ways.”
We never saw a sequel for the game, but it’s great that we’ll get to see it adapted into a TV series where he will get to dive in and explore all those story elements that he was hoping to bring to the sequel games. Harlan went on to say:
“I think it’s important to embrace those characters and to bring Alan Wake to where he was [in the video game,]. We can’t start the show off where he is fully functioning, running through the forest, taking down lumberjacks.”
Harlan also made it clear that the show won’t tell a story that is in “lockstep” with the game. He wouldn’t really go into any other details about the plans for the series, but he did say that while the character Alan Wake is very much “in the heart of this story, there are vitally important characters around him as well.” Lake then added:
“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.”
That will implement aspects of the unmade sequel to the game that they had been developing:
“Not only that, but through the years, we’ve worked on multiple game concepts and stories for Alan Wake’s world that have never seen the light of day. All of this material will function as potential source material for the show.
With the TV series currently in development, it’s explained that there are hopes that it will open the door for more video games, but as of right now, there’s nothing being planned in that regard.
Alan Wake is a great game that told a great story and I think that it will make for a fantastic TV series with the right creative team and talent behind it. This series adaptation is still in the early stages of development, but I hope that Calloway and Lake succeed and are able to bring their vision to life in the best possible way. I’d totally be excited to watch an Alan Wake TV show! What do you all think about Alan Wake getting a TV series?