Dark City is officially getting a television adaptation thanks to director Alex Proyas. The news comes from a virtual Q&A held by the ongoing Popcorn Frights Film Festival, which is premiering the 1998 film’s short successor Mask of the Evil Apparition. While the short film and subsequent Q&A with Mayhem director Joe Lynch have not been released, the news of the Dark City adaptation was broken by Bloody Disgusting.
“Dark City right now is really an intriguing one to me because we’re developing a series, a Dark City series,” Proyas has revealed. He did not reveal much about the plot and where the series is expected to premiere, mainly because it is still in the early stages of development. Just don't expect it to be a straight adaptation of the film, which is a noir/science-fiction blend that centered around a man (Rufus Sewell) embroiled in an alien conspiracy.
“I’m having to reanalyze in order to construct a new story,” Proyas explains, “I’m having to go back and kind of jog my memory as to what we actually did and what I think worked and what I think didn’t work and reevaluate my own film, so that’s been a very interesting experience as well which I’ve not done before.”
We could get a glimpse of what this new story could entail thanks to Mask of the Evil Apparition, which Popcorn Frights confirmed was a part of Dark City’s universe. The short centers around an amnesiac young woman who finds herself pursued by a group called the Mysterious Ones. These clones share a slight similarity to the original film’s Strangers, only with black button-ups and long hair. Whether or not they are just as menacing will be revealed soon.
Mask of the Evil Apparition, as well as the Q&A with Proyas and Lynch, will premiere on August 12th at 9 PM EST. They will remain available until August 19th, the final day of Popcorn Frights. As for the future of the Dark City series, consider us thoroughly hyped.