Indie Game: The Movie optioned for TV drama

Posted January 23, 2012 by Luke Stratford in Gamer Culture, News.

Saw this coming? Still touring the festivals, Indie Game: The Movie has been optioned by HBO for a fictional adaptation.

If all the SOPA rage has been getting you down, leave it to America to turn up some news so genuinely bizarre that it could only be the truth. Nobody could pitch a drama about game development – but it seems that Kickstart-based documentary Indie Game: The Film has transgressed the genre (and, possibly, the logic) divide between a ‘bad’ idea and a ‘so insane it might just work’ idea.

Still awaiting the green light to go ahead with production, Gamasutra reports, the film caught broadcast network HBO’s eye at the Sundance Film Festival, and was optioned swiftly afterwards.

The documentary itself, examining the people behind Indie staples Fez, Super Meat Boy and Braid, doesn’t exactly scream dramatic potential, but then again, the talent drafted in to handle the project may do the trick. Producer Scott Rudin, with films such as No Country For Old Men, The Social Network and There Will Be Blood under his belt, there’s some credibility to the idea that this may not play out as some abysmal mash-up of The Office and The Big Bang Theory, which, let’s be honest, it so easily could be.

Currently, nothing else has come to light surrounding the optioning, other than the crediting of Scott Rudin in a producing role. However, according to the original documentary’s creators, Lisanne Pajot and James Swirsky, things are looking bright for the project, as they stated on the film’s Facebook page:

‘The people involved, the network involved — all are, by far, the best people possible to make this show. All you need to do is look at the list of HBO series titles and Scott Rudin’s IMDB, and you can see why we think this is a brilliant thing. We want to see this show happen. We want to watch this show.’

Tagged as Adaptation, Documentary, HBO, Indie Game: The Movie, Sundance Film Festival, TV series, TV Show