Stephen King Surprised Alan Wake Devs by Wanting Only $1 for His Work
Remedy Entertainment has shared an interesting fact about Alan Wake. Permission to use a quote by a famous writer cost the developers only.... a symbolic dollar.
Stephen King let Remedy Entertainment use his quote for a token dollar. In a recent interview for Eurogamer, the fact was revealed by the studio's creative director, Sam Lake, who "desperately" wanted them to be included at the beginning of Alan Wake.
Alan Wake and the influence of Stephen King
Creators of Alan Wake make no secret of the fact that they modeled the game on the famous writer when developing it. Now the person responsible for its script, Sam Lake, revealed that he directly desperately wanted the story to open with a quote from King's essay, which would perfectly fit the atmosphere of the game. The quote in question reads:
"Nightmares exist outside of logic, and there's little fun to be had in explanations; they're antithetical to the poetry of fear. In a horror story, the victim keeps asking 'why?' But there can be no explanation, and there shouldn't be one. The unanswered mystery is what stays with us the longest, and it's what we'll remember in the end."
This comes from an essay titled Why Hollywood can't do horror movies?, published in Entertainment Weekly magazine in 2008.
It turned out that the writer wanted only a token dollar for permission to use his words. Lake described it as a generous gesture from the famous filmmaker.
Recall that the game in question debuted on the market in 2010 on PC and Xbox 360, and less than two years ago we saw the release of the Remastered edition, which came to last- and current-gen console platforms.
Alan Wake 2 is coming
There has also been a lot of buzz for quite some time about the Alan Wake sequel. The second part is expected to be longer than the original and guarantee greater emphasis on horror elements. Demo of Alan Wake II was available to Summer Game Fest attendees - according to reports from journalists it is worth waiting for this title.
It should be added that Kyle Rowley, co-director of AW II, and Molly Maloney, narrative director, spoke with VGC about the upcoming sequel. They revealed that this part is inspired by the show True Detective.
Let's point out that Alan Wake II is heading exclusively for PC and the latest generation of consoles, namely PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. The game is scheduled for release on October 17.
