Remedy Entertainment has announced that it’s partnering with Annapurna to develop movie and TV adaptations of its much-loved supernatural game series, Alan Wake and Control.
There’s no more detail on the projects than that — just the suggestion that the two companies are looking to turn Alan Wake and Control into multimedia franchises across “film, television and other audiovisual formats.” Or perhaps that should be franchise, singular; there are many references to the first Alan Wake in Control, suggesting that the games share a universe.
Despite its reputation as a boutique movie studio with a focus on arty, auteur-led projects like Spike Jonze’s Her and Barry Jenkins’ If Beale Street Could Talk, it sounds as though Annapurna sees its deal with Remedy as a respectable way into the franchise business. “The way we tell stories is changing,” said Annapurna’s founder and CEO Megan Ellison in the companies’ joint press release. “Today people fall in love with characters and universes, not formats, and we’re excited to leverage Remedy’s beloved, immersive narratives in these new mediums.”
As part of the deal, Annapurna — which also has a successful indie games label, Annapurna Interactive — will co-finance and co-produce the in-development Control 2, sequel to the 2019 action-adventure about exploring the Federal Bureau of Control’s reality-warping paranormal HQ.
Remedy revived the cultish horror world of haunted writer Alan Wake last year with Alan Wake 2, which won critical plaudits and became the studio’s fastest-selling game, although according to a financial report from the studio it had still not recouped its development and marketing costs as of April 2024.
At that time, Remedy also announced that it had bought back the full rights to Control and Control 2 from its publishing partner for those games, 505 Games. So Annapurna coming on board as a new partner for Control 2 makes sense, and no doubt brings some welcome financial security for Remedy as it looks to go it alone as a video game publisher. “By backing Remedy’s move toward self-publishing, we’re putting our faith in their vision,” said Annapurna’s Hector Sanchez.
Remedy is currently working on DLC for Alan Wake 2, Codename Condor (a multiplayer Control spinoff), Control 2, and remakes of the games that made the studio’s name, Max Payne and Max Payne 2.
