Survival video game The Long Dark is having a stellar week. Not only has the game already become a hit, selling 1.3 million copies before its Tuesday PlayStation 4 release, but today is was announced that the game is set to become a live-action film.
Resident Evil producer Jeremy Bolt has joined with the video game studio behind The Long Dark, Hinterland, to create a live-action version of the popular game, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter. The game focuses on two characters, bush pilot Will Mackenzie and Dr. Astrid Greenwood, who become lost in the North Canadian forests after a geomagnetic catastrophe and have to find their way back to each other.
“I first reached out to Raphael, as a fan of The Long Dark,” Bolt said. “I was immediately taken by the game’s stunningly immersive landscapes, eerily solitary and realistic nature; it is an existential tale of moral, emotional and physical endurance with strong characters to build on; it is also a mystery. It is an honor to try to do justice to it on film.”
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Fans trying to picture what a live-action The Long Dark could look like should check out the five-minute short film Hinterland released called Elegy. The short is written by Hinterland’s founder and creative director, Raphael van Lierop, directed by Jared Pelletier and featuring Christopher Plummer.
Van Lierop described the short film as a “visual poem” that acts as a sample what he would like to achieve with the movie adaptation. Van Lierop said in a statement that the game’s live-action version is part of his overall vision for Hinterland as a multimedia company.
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“My goal with Hinterland — starting with The Long Dark — has always been to create original properties that could span multiple mediums, exploiting the storytelling potential of each form,” Van Lierop said. “Partnering with Jeremy on this project is the first step in achieving that vision of true cross-platform storytelling in the world of The Long Dark.”
The Long Dark is a survival game that has the player take on the role of a crashed pilot trying to survive in the cold, Canadian wilderness. Funding for the game was raised via a Kickstarter campaign in 2013, with additional funding acquired from the Canada Media Fund. The game entered a prerelease Early Access phase on the Steam virtual storefront in late 2014. The Long Dark film adaptation currently has no release date.