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More and more TV shows are being adapted from video games, and more and more of them are setting the mold for what a good video game adaptation looks like, with Fallout, Twisted Metal, The Last of Us, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, and more setting the standard, while also making it clear there is no one type of video game adaptation. One of the latest announcements is that Strange Scaffold’s El Paso, Elsewhere is being adapted to a TV series by Di Bonaventura Pictures. This is a departure from most other adaptations, as El Paso, Elsewhere is a recently-released indie game, and not a AAA series that is firmly-established in the gaming community.
For Strange Scaffold’s Xalavier Nelson Jr, it’s an exciting time, “It makes a concrete case for how regardless of whether you’re playing the game, or ultimately experiencing the adaptation, the universe, story, themes, and nuance of [El Paso, Elsewhere] really still ring true,” Nelson Jr. told GameSpot.
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Now Playing: El Paso, Elsewhere — Official Gameplay Launch Trailer
El Paso, Elsewhere pays homage to familiar games from the past, like Max Payne, in a world of vampires in a neo-noir setting that focuses on tragedy and love story, following Black monster hunter James Savage in a haunted, dimension-shifting hotel.
“I know that there’s two pieces to any adaptation. The first one is the prospect of adaptation at all, which is exciting, and then finding the right creative partners and team to bring that to life. And I’m really coming into El Paso, Elsewhere–in the recent news–with a deep gratitude that not only have people seen the story in the universe that we brought to life and have found value in it across multiple mediums, but also that the people who have identified this value are such a vibrant, creative voices themselves and really care about telling a powerful and good and true version of this story.”
“Then separately from that, there was a game I wanted to make called Pill Cop, which would be a parody of Max Payne, taken up to 11, where it’s just a complete send-up of the tropes–the dialogue, the atmosphere of Max Payne coming from a place of the most love possible–as someone who was deeply impacted by the original games when I was growing up. At a certain point, I realized that these two universes actually could have been the same thing. I could tell the story of this weird, sincere vampire hunter and deliver a gameplay experience that was an homage of Max Payne, the Constantine film, and PS1’s “Die Hard Trilogy.”
El Paso, Elsewhere certainly does feel like Max Payne. You run around shooting vampires and have a slow motion button that adds to the fun factor of the game. It also features polygon-syle graphics for the main character and many elements of the world around the player. However, the major departure from games like it is that it’s a complex character study in a world that’s constantly shifting around you, leading to many surprises for the player.
Its origins come from Nelson Jr.’s family taking a trip to El Paso, Texas. “Driving along a road called Woodrow Bean Transmountain Drive, this image bolted into my head–very soon after my family arrived in El Paso, Texas–of a guy driving through those same mountains, hunched over the wheel of his car late at night looking for a place to bury the body of the vampire in his truck,” he said. “I knew I had to tell his story and ended up writing a comic issue called El Paso, Elsewhere that’s not seen the light of day as of yet.”
“I think we’re seeing, all over the place, evidence of people telling the stories that you’ve seen before, but in a way that makes you love the universe more than you did when you came in through the door. And I love being able to witness that magic.”
At the time of this writing, LaKeith Stanfield (Judas and the Black Messiah, Get Out) is in talks to appear in the movie. Di Bonaventura Pictures, which produces the G.I. Joe and Transformers movies, is the production company behind the project.
In GameSpot’s El Paso, Elsewhere review, Alessandro Barbosa said, “Its straightforward action is enhanced by its consistently evolving enemies and delicate balancing of power, while its captivating love story presents a novel take on established mythologies with some impressive performances to back them up.
