Critically-acclaimed indie video game “Dredge” is getting the film treatment.
Black Salt Games has partnered with production company Story Kitchen to create a live-action feature adaptation of the single-player Lovecraftian fishing adventure with a sinister undercurrent.
In the game, players are invited to sell their catch, upgrade their boat and dredge the depths for long-buried secrets as they explore a mysterious archipelago and discover why some things are best left forgotten.
Taking control of a fisherman and his boat, users explore a collection of remote isles and their surrounding depths to see what lies below. Selling the day’s catches to locals unearths more information about each area’s troubled past, but darkness ushers in the night’s worrisome eldritch horrors.
The film’s official logline reads, “Think ‘The Sixth Sense’ on the water. A grounded atmospheric cosmic horror blend of HP Lovecraft and Ernest Hemingway.”
“We are excited to partner with such an experienced studio team to bring the world we created to live action and ignite the imagination of audiences across the globe,” said Black Salt Games’ Nadia Thorne, Joel Mason, Alex Ritchie and Michael Bastiaens in a statement.
Story Kitchen’s Dmitri M. Johnson, Mike Goldberg, Dan Jevons and Timothy I. Stevenson said, “’Dredge’ is a captivatingly eerie and profoundly rich story that had us completely hooked from the very beginning!”
“Dredge” was released in March 2023 by the New Zealand-based team at Black Salt Games. Within the first 24 hours, the game sold over 100,000 copies, and went on to move over 1 million units. Its first downloadable content (DLC), “The Pale Reach,” was released in November, and another upcoming DLC, “The Iron Rig,” will be released this year.
“Dredge” was nominated for best indie game at the Golden Joystick Awards and The Game Awards, and is currently nominated for four BAFTA awards.
Black Salt Games is repped by Greenberg Glusker Fields Claman & Machtinger LLP. Story Kitchen is repped by WME, Simon Pulman and Briana Hill at Pryor Cashman Sherman & Flynn LLP and TriplePoint PR.
