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AMC Set to Develop ‘Alan Wake’ TV Series

In a video update on the game’s upcoming sequel, creator Sam Lake confirmed that the network has secured rights to adapt its story for the small screen.

While Remedy Entertainment shared updates on the progress it’s making on Alan Wake 2 (the game is scheduled to release in 2023), the gaming studio also revealed that AMC has secured the rights to adapt Alan Wake as a series.

In a video posted on Alan Wake’s 12th anniversary, Remedy creative director Sam Lake said that AMC is set to develop an Alan Wake series to add to its “wonderful home for absolutely brilliant TV shows.” He added that although it will take a long time to make, Remedy has been closely collaborating with AMC to get the project off the ground.

The saga of Alan Wake is centered around its titular protagonist -- a renowned crime fiction author who heads to a lakeside cabin in a strange, desolate town to overcome a severe case of writer’s block. When Alan’s wife disappears, he finds pages from a manuscript he doesn’t remember writing, but whose horrific events become reality in his own life. Remedy announced the game’s sequel last year, and has since been tight-lipped about its plot and other juicy details.

Word of AMC’s involvement in an Alan Wake adaptation has been brewing for some time. Back in 2018, Variety reported that Peter Calloway (Cloak & Dagger, Legion) would serve as showrunner and writer of a potential project overseen by the network, with Lake named as an executive producer.

Commenting on the game’s fitness for TV, Contradiction Films’ Tomas Harlan said that “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 this show. Sam is a huge part of this. This is his baby.”

At that time, Harlan also indicated that the show’s story would grow seeds planted by the game’s universe, but wouldn’t be a carbon copy of its source material.

“I think it’s important to embrace those characters and to bring Alan Wake to where he was [in the video game,]” he explained. “We can’t start the show off where he is fully functioning, running through the forest, taking down lumberjacks. 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.”

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Max Weinstein is a writer and editor based in Los Angeles. He is the Editor-at-Large of 'Dread Central' and former Editorial Director of 'MovieMaker.' His work has been featured in 'Cineaste,' 'Fangoria,' 'Playboy,' 'Vice,' and 'The Week.'