Lake District disaster game to be developed for TV

Pamela TickellNorth East and Cumbria
News imageRebellion Still from the Atomfall game showing a masked male character standing on a rock on combat gear holding a rifle. He looks out over a green landscape with dark clouds forming over mountains in the distance, with a nuclear reactor shooting blue lightning bolts into the sky. Rebellion
Atomfall is inspired by a fire at a nuclear reactor in Cumbria in 1957

A Bafta award-winning game set in a post-apocalyptic Lake District will be adapted for TV, it has been announced.

Atomfall, produced by Oxford-based Rebellion, is based on an alternative history of the 1957 Windscale fire in Cumbria - the UK's worst nuclear accident.

The series will be developed by the game's makers and Two Brothers Pictures, who were behind series including Fleabag and The Tourist.

Harry Williams, from the production company, said it had been a "real joy" to develop a game that had "such a distinctive British tone and setting".

The video game follows a protagonist who wakes up inside a quarantine zone with no memory of how they arrived.

The alternative timeline sees the area surrounding the Sellafield plant walled and guarded, following a disastrous nuclear incident.

News imageRebellion A second still from Atomfall showing a village centre with traditional houses and road signs. In the distance at the bottom of the hill black smoke billows from a nuclear reactor. Rebellion
The show would be faithful to the game's tone, themes and British roots, the producers said

Williams told BBC Radio Cumbria: "We haven't seen that kind of thing done on British TV before.

"Especially to see a British landscape, like the Lakes, we used to go there as kids all the time, so it's such a familiar landscape."

In a joint release, the producers said the TV adaptation would "expand on the game's mythology while remaining faithful to its tone, themes and British roots".

Two Brothers was founded by siblings Harry and Jack Williams, while Rebellion was established by siblings Jason and Chris Kingsley.

"Two brothers meet two brothers," Harry Williams said of their initial meetings.

Rebellion said: "We are sure that this partnership will help to deliver a television series that will delight fans of the game and beyond."

The disaster epic won Best British Game at BAFTA Games Awards earlier this year.

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