HBO options Indie Game: The Movie for series

HBO is limbering up for a TV drama tackling the most harrowing and difficult subject it’s approached yet: indie video games. It’s early days yet, but the cable channel has optioned documentary Indie Game: The Movie to make a fiction series.

January 23, 2012 9:30 AM14

HBO is limbering up for a television drama tackling its most difficult and harrowing subject yet: indie video games. It’s early days yet, but the American cable channel has unexpectedly optioned documentary Indie Game: The Movie to make a half-hour series. And in true indie style, it’s already been misunderstood.

The initial report from Deadline said that Home Box Office’s series would be a comedy, raising more than a few eyebrows in the indie community. However, the original documentary’s makers Lisanne Pajot and James Swirsky insist that’s not the case.

“HBO has optioned IGTM for the basis of a (fictional) series. It is NOT a comedy. It is NOT a sitcom,” the pair explained on Facebook.

The documentary follows the trials and tribulations of the developers behind Braid, Super Meat Boy, and Fez. Presumably HBO’s series will be inspired more by the tone and struggle than the men themselves, though we must say James Van Der Beek would make a mean Phil Fish.

“The people involved, the network involved – all are, BY FAR, the best people possible to make this show,” Pajot and Swirsky say. “We are ecstatic about the possibilities of working with this team. All you need to do is look at the list of HBO series titles & [producer] 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.”

Do remember that optioning something doesn’t guarantee it’ll be made, merely that it could. The documentary made its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on Friday, then will have a theatrical release followed by the DVD. Here’s a peek at it: