Tuesday 27 July 2021 – for immediate release
Interactive Game Series Set for TV adaptation
London-based immersive entertainment company Swamp Motel has secured a deal with Gaumont UK to option the film and TV rights to their sleuthing alternate reality adventure series Isklander trilogy.
The three-part interactive game series comprising Plymouth Point, The Mermaid’s Tongue and The Kindling Hour invites players to unleash their inner online detective as they enter a world of corporate deceit, occult horrors, and shadowy cabals to uncover the twists and turns of a murky underworld deep within high society. The trilogy, which stars actor Dominic Monaghan (Lord of the Rings trilogy), has amassed legions of fans with over 60,000 people across the UK and the US having played the games since the first instalment, Plymouth Point, launched in April 2020.
Whilst the Isklander trilogy in its current form has been designed as an at home, online experience for two - six players, plans to adapt the story for a multi-part drama series for TV are now underway with Gaumont UK - the British arm of the French studio behind Lupin and Narcos. The drama development is led by executive producer Alison Jackson (Tin Star, Ashes to Ashes, Hunted), who also helms Gaumont’s UK growing London-based division, and Gaumont UK’s Senior Development Exec Jamie Jackson.
Employing a blend of inventive storytelling and cutting-edge technology, this dark, digital story world was created by Swamp Motel writers, co-founders and creative directors Ollie Jones and Clem Garritty. Both creative associates of Punchdrunk and co-founders of the critically acclaimed comedy theatre company Kill the Beast, they created Plymouth Point initially in response to the closures of entertainment and theatre spaces across the world last year. It has since grown into a permanent fixture in the online entertainment space internationally and now an entirely new arm of the company’s creative output.
Interactive, multi-media and episodic, Isklander is a transmedia franchise intended to be explored across multiple formats.
Gaumont UK CEO and executive producer Alison Jackson said: “From the moment our senior development executive Jamie Jackson played the first of the Iskander trilogy and recommended it to the team, we could see it’s potential for adaptation. A breathtakingly paced thriller, with a fascinating conspiracy and heart stopping twists at its centre. It feels exactly the sort of show we’re all desperate to watch at the moment, we’re thrilled to be partnering with such an exciting, forward thinking company as Swamp Motel.”
The Isklander series follows a secret society with ties to big money and an international network who will go to any lengths to protect their supremacy. The stories blur fiction and reality, with the very real London Stone at the centre of the race against the clock. Hunting for ancient artefacts linked to this underworld, players work with various characters across the Isklander series to bring down the organisation from the inside.
Swamp Motel’s Clem Garritty and Ollie Jones commented: “We’re so excited to collaborate with Gaumont UK. Our online experiences - Plymouth Point, The Mermaid’s Tongue and The Kindling Hour - were always more than just a trilogy. Together they’re a storyworld. There is so much scope to delve deeper into the world we’ve created and its characters. Adapting Isklander for film and tv purposes provides the perfect opportunity to do just that. We see transmedia narratives as the really exciting future of original IPs and we’re passionate about their development and the impact of storytelling on each platform. We’re thrilled Gaumont UK has spotted the same potential.”
Gaumont UK was launched to produce exceptional original British drama for the global market. Led by Executive Producer and CEO Alison Jackson, whose credits include Tin Star, M.I High and Ashes to Ashes, Gaumont UK has several projects in development for terrestrial channels and the streaming market. Gaumont UK recently produced the third series of Sky Atlantic’s hugely successful Tim Roth drama Tin Star, which Jackson executive produced, alongside Kudos.
Further details regarding the TV adaptation are still to come. In the meantime, the Isklander trilogy is available to be played online now - visit isklander.com for more details.
Gaumont UK CEO and executive producer Alison Jackson
What critics are saying:
“Swamp Motel's escape room/scavenger hunt mashup is the most fun I've had in a year“ - CNet
“Swamp Motel knows how to put on a show” - Wired
"Inventive, gorgeously designed and technically dazzling"
★★★★ The Guardian
"Fiendishly good fun"
★★★★ Metro
"It left us feeling invigorated"
★★★★ Daily Mail
IMAGES FOR DOWNLOAD
Swamp Motel Media Contact:
Miriam Attwood miriam@storytellingpr.com
Emma Costello emma@storytellingpr.com
Gaumont UK Media Contact:
Gaumont@premiercomms.com
About Swamp Motel
Swamp Motel is an immersive entertainment company who create experiences for live audiences that blur boundaries between theatre, film and gaming. By giving audiences a pivotal role within story-worlds, their innovative productions always thrill you whether experiencing them on your sofa, at your desk or in an unexpected live venue.
Launched in 2017, Swamp Motel was formed by Jones and Garritty, both Creative Associates of Punchdrunk and co-founders of the critically acclaimed comedy theatre company Kill the Beast. For the past three years, Swamp Motel have built experiences for stage, screen and live events in London, New York and Sydney - from product launches to immersive activations, dining experiences to escape rooms. Swamp Motel were the winners of Campaign’s Best Brand Experience (B2B) of the Year in 2018 and were Finalists at The Drum Experience Awards in 2018 and 2019. Previous clients include BBC, Disney, Yahoo!, Dishoom, Cadbury, X-Box, Resident Evil 2 and Verizon Media.
Over 2020-21 Swamp Motel created the Isklander trilogy of online multimedia mystery games - Plymouth Point, The Mermaid’s Tongue and The Kindling Hour. The first instalment, Plymouth Point was recognised in 2021 with a Webby Honouree as part of the 25th Annual Webby Awards and won the Gold Award at the UK Campaign Experience Awards in the Debut Event category.
In June 2021, Swamp Motel teamed up with Amazon Prime Video to create Panic, The Experience - an online experience to coincide with the release of the Amazon Original one-hour drama series, Panic.
About Gaumont UK
Gaumont UK - part of Gaumont, the world’s oldest film company and leading global production company - was launched to produce exceptional original British drama for the global market. Led by executive producer and CEO Alison Jackson (Tin Star, Hunted, Ashes to Ashes) alongside Creative Director Myar Craig-Brown, Gaumont UK have several projects in development for terrestrial channels and the streaming market. Gaumont UK recently produced the third series of Sky Atlantic’s hugely successful Tim Roth drama Tin Star, which Jackson executive produced, alongside Kudos.
About Gaumont
Formed in France in 1895, Gaumont is the first film company in the world, celebrating 125 years of history and innovation. With offices in Paris, Los Angeles, London, Köln and Berlin, Gaumont remains an industry leader, producing and distributing high-quality TV programming and films.
Specializing in producing local stories with global appeal, Gaumont’s current slate includes talent-driven, diverse, and distinctive titles across multiple languages for the world’s leading global streaming platforms and channels:
In production for Netflix, Narcos, 6th season, F is for Family 5th season, High in the Clouds, the animated feature developed together with Paul McCartney, Samurai Rabbit: The Usagi Chronicles based on the comic books by Stan Sakai, The Barbarians, the period epic drama set in Germany, 2nd season and Arsène Lupin, directed by Louis Leterrier and starring Omar Sy in France.
In the UK, Tin Star, airing its 3rd season for Sky and Amazon Prime, and globally Trial 4 for Netflix, is a new docu-series by Jean Xavier de Lestrade (The Staircase).
For Amazon Prime Video US, Do Re & Mi with Kristen Bell, El Presidente co-created by Armando Bo and Pablo Larraín in Latin America and the espionage show Totems in France.
For Apple TV+ based on the Zen Shorts book series of Jon. J. Muth, Stillwater.
Gaumont co-produces and distributes around ten films a year in theaters. The film library encompasses over 1400 titles from prestigious directors such as Louis Malle, Jean-Luc Godard, and more recently, Toledano and Nakache for The Intouchables, the highest-grossing French-language movie to date with over $450 million in revenue to date.