Stardew Valley had "many" chances to become a movie or TV show, but creator ConcernedApe only had eyes for the legendary director of Twin Peaks: "'You can do whatever you want, Mr. Lynch'"

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Imagine making Fried Egg in the Black Lodge

Stardew Valley character known as Elliott, a man with long auburn hair and a red coat
(Image credit: ConcernedApe)

There's another dimension where the late David Lynch converted Eric 'ConcernedApe' Barone's Stardew Valley into his proprietary blend of murder mystery and apple pie Americana, and in this dimension, I am sat in front of the TV. In the real, pitiful world, however, I still miss David Lynch after his death last January, and Barone seems resigned to never adapt his preternaturally cozy game.

Barone tells IGN in a new interview, while he's been approached "many times" to turn Stardew Valley into a film or television property, he's always been too "worried that I wouldn't be happy with the final result." The only exception he would have made is for the surrealist genius and Blue Velvet director Lynch.

Riding horses with friends in Stardew Valley

(Image credit: ConcernedApe)

"Honestly, I would've let him just do whatever," Barone says, and "I think it would've been great."

Otherwise, Barone is anxious about deciding players' ideas of Stardew Valley for them. He says, "Stardew Valley is very much about the characters and the world and the tone of the game. So to take those characters, which, they don't have voices in the game. You have to use your imagination a bit to fill in the gaps, which I think makes the game more personal to every player. They're filling in the gaps. If it becomes a movie or a TV show, suddenly those gaps are all filled for you."

"It would be cool to see Stardew Valley on the silver screen and drive by a movie theater and see Stardew Valley on the marquee," Barone concedes, "but it's like, 'Is it really the best for Stardew Valley?'"

As the world reflects on the passing of David Lynch, let's remember his wonderfully weird, absolutely brilliant PS2 commercials: "This is so f***ing beautiful."

Ashley Bardhan
Ashley Bardhan
Senior Writer

Ashley is a Senior Writer at GamesRadar+. She's been a staff writer at Kotaku and Inverse, too, and she's written freelance pieces about horror and women in games for sites like Rolling Stone, Vulture, IGN, and Polygon. When she's not covering gaming news, she's usually working on expanding her doll collection while watching Saw movies one through 11.

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