Tales From the Loop, Amazon Prime's Retro-Futuristic Series

the route to Tales from the Loop arrive at Amazon Prime it's really interesting. Below you can learn a little more about the Swedish author Simon Stålenhag, the works that were developed from his illustrations and the production of the series that is now available on Amazon Prime.

Simon Stålenhag, before Tales From the Loop

The Swedish illustrator, born in 1984, became known at the beginning of the last decade for his intriguing works. Most of his illustrations are scenes of rural Sweden, but with something special: mundane elements are combined with spaceships and robots. Furthermore, installations in ruins and devastated landscapes compose a universe, which the author himself defines as retro-futuristic. the artist's website brings together several of his works.:

The illustrations began to draw public attention and Simon Stalenhag saw the opportunity to turn this project into a hybrid kind of narrative novel and art book. For this, the author started a campaign on the crowdfunding website, Kickstarter.

Tales from the Loop – Book

The initial value proposed by Simon Stalenhag on the platform was $10 and he made a whopping $320.
And with that the book was successfully financed and released to the public.

The book focuses, for the most part, on the fictional story of a small town, in which the Swedish government built a mysterious particle accelerator, dubbed by locals as "The Loop". The project is then abandoned, but the consequences of the experiments carried out there, such as the emergence of strange robots, are seen in the landscapes of the peaceful city.

The book was a tremendous success, and the author managed to produce two more books: “Things from the Flood“, released in 2016, which focuses on the same universe as “Tales from the Loop"and "The Electric State“, released in 2017, with a standalone story.

Good news for fans of “Avengers: Infinity War"and "Avengers: Endgame“: the directors Anthony Russo e Joe Russo bought the rights to the adaptation of “The Electric State“. The book tells the story of a teenager and a robot, as they roam the countryside of the United States. The adaptation does not yet have a premiere date.

Tales from the Loop – Game

The author Simon Stalenhag, given the success of his books, decides to create a new campaign on the platform Kickstarter, this time for the creation of an RPG game based on his books. See the trailer below that was used in the campaign to fund the game.

In the game, you choose a character (all teenagers in the late eighties) to solve mysteries connected to the “The Loop“. The characters are archetypes such as “the bookworm”, “the troublemaker”, “the popular kid” and “the weird one”. The daily lives of these teenagers are normal, with conflicts with their parents and bullying.

The mysteries lead the characters to encounter machines and strange creatures that emerged after the "The Loop" It was built. The game can be found on the specialized platform FreeLeague.

In addition to the RPG game, a board game is currently being developed and with a release date of 2021. As usual, Simon Stalenhag, now a veteran in financing his projects through the platform kickstater, is with the project at this very moment and has already exceeded the requested amount of 4 thousand Euros by 46 times. The project has already raised almost 220 thousand euros.

Tales from the Loop – Series

Given the success of all materials based on the works of Simon Stalenhag, it was inevitable that it would arrive either in cinemas or on television. THE Amazon secured the rights of both"Tales of the Loop"and "Things from the Flood” in 2018 and production began.

During negotiations, at the author's own request, the series would be based solely on the books, ignoring the expanded universe created for the games. The author, who also serves as an executive producer, allowed the series to be transported to rural America so that it could reach an international audience. This decision, which was met with controversy, was very well defended by the author.

Considering the important role that the Swedish countryside plays in the universe, Stalenhag claimed that his books are unconventional, and are a representation of a parallel reality, not necessarily of a specific country. The most important element was maintaining the confrontation of rural landscapes with technology and neo-futurism.

Along with the author, in the executive producer chair, are Nathaniel Halpern, responsible for successful series such as “Legion"and "The Killing" And, Matt Reeves, film directorCloverfield” and the next “The Batman“, which hits theaters in 2021.

Check out the trailer for the series below.

One of the interesting elements of the production was the decision to have each episode directed by a different director. The producers gave a chance to both relatively novice directors, as well as more established names in the industry.

Andrew Stanton, director who won Oscar for Best Animation for “Procurando nemo"And "Wall-E", is Jodie Foster, a two-time Oscar-winning actress, who has worked extensively as a television director, having directed episodes of series such as “Black Mirror"and "House of Cards“, are among the selected directors. Stanton directs the 4th episode and Foster directs the final episode.

Many have comparedTales from the Loop" to Stranger Things e Dark and the series received good reviews, currently with 84% approval on the Rotten Tomatoes website.

All 8 episodes of the series are available now on the platform Amazon Prime.

And you, have you watched Tales From The Loop? Tell us what you think of the series Comment!