I’m really shocked with Remedy’s stance at an upcoming fan-made movie that will be based on Alan Wake. The team behind it is called ‘DDCN Production 2011’ and posted on Remedy’s forum a supposedly location backstage teaser for their movie. Now let’s get one thing straight here; those fans are really low on budget and they don’t obviously possess the means to make a Hollywood movie. This is understandable and we can also see the reason behind ‘borrowing’ some material from various documentaries. This is a bloody non-profit movie guys. Let us say it again; this is a fan-made, non-profit film.

Things got quickly out of hand after that post, since Remedy pointed their gun on this fan-made film. There are obviously similarities to this Alan Wake fan-film and BBC’s Planet Earth. However, let us say it one more time that this is a fan-made film, that is non-profit and that it’s made on the team’s free time. These are no pros, these are not from a studio, these are not making any money. It’s like pointing your gun to a modder for borrowing assets from other games. Jesus Christ.

Remedy’s  Mikki was a bit ironic after watching this backstage teaser. Now it’s not entirely Remedy’s fault for pointing their gun to them, as DDCN Production’s director said that the footage was theirs. In Remedy’s defense, the company’s team leader said that “all director and all profesional production – sometimes – copy from the others” and that “the important is for you to do it better“. Those lines obviously made mad Remedy’s employees but they should keep in mind that these fans are making a simple movie in their free time. Hell, they could say something along the lines <<Okay guys, you obviously don’t have a high budget and we get it. Don’t worry, we won’t criticize you>>.

Instead, Remedy’s Community Manager said some pretty harsh words. As ADM said:

“I don’t think it’s something he “thinks” is similar. It IS similar. There’s a 100% match, no matter how you try spin it.

I really hope in the future we actually see something substantial on the fan movie rather than long preset visual effect teasers and stolen BBC footage.”

This post was so wrong in so many ways. First and foremost, this is a non-profit movie and it’s true that some footage look similar – if not the same, albeit with some additional post-processing effects – to Planet Earth. But the very same can be said about mods. Yeah, you’ve seen mods with assets from other games or some mods that borrow assets from pictures that are available on the net, right? In fact, most of the HD Texture Packs are made in this way. Moreover, the movie is not ready yet so shouldn’t Remedy’s Community Manager wait until he actually sees it?

Before jumping to early conclusions, we believe that both DDCN Production 2011 and Remedy are in fault here. DDCN Production’s acted selfishly, there is no doubt about that. However, Remedy should understand that this is a fan film for their game. This is no Hollywood stuff and they are not making any money. Therefore, they should welcome such an attempt instead of criticizing it as hard as they can get.

We are really looking forward to this fan film and we’ll definitely bring it to you when it’s ready. After all, we love fan-films!