BioShock director Ken Levine, in a short break from writing games with massive twists, is working on an interactive Twilight Zone movie that aims to “explore the spaces between movies and games.”
Just like everything in our upcoming PC games list, the Twilight Zone Levine project isn’t out yet.
Ken Levine’s Twilight Zone film will exist independently from his work with Irrational Games, where Levine’s team are still “working diligently” on the studio’s next game.
The Twilight Zone interactive film will use technology from media company Interlude to allow viewers to determine what the characters do and to steer the plot. So, will it be a bird or a cage?
“Playing my games, you can probably tell Twilight Zone is something I grew up with,” Levine says in a Wired interview.
“They speak to a larger truth. They’re morality plays, fables, and often they’re about a character who is going through an experience that’s central to their life but also speaks to a larger part of the human condition. I don’t think [Rod] Serling, at the beginning, set out to be a science-fiction writer. But he found that this is a great medium to do metaphor.”
Interlude founderYoni Bloch approached Levine with the offer, which he will be taking on in his spare time as a side project outside of games.
“I’ve been a writer my whole life and I haven’t had the chance to direct a live-action thing before,” Levine says. “I’ve done a lot of directing with voice actors, and back when I was younger, I used to direct stage plays. [Bloch] was like, ‘we want to see you carry this thing through from start to finish – write it, direct it.’ And then he said, ‘Twilight Zone.’ What am I going to say? No?”
The project is still early days, with Levine and the Interlude team drafting the script and working out how to leverage interactivity to engage the audience.
Cheers, Wired.