The next project from Sam Barlow, the video game writer-director best known for his acclaimed independent project Her Story, has been announced. Called Telling Lies, it’ll be a “spiritual follow-up” to Her Story, which had players sifting through live-action footage to piece together its story of a woman who had been brought in for several police interrogations.
Thanks to his partnership with the new game-publishing division of Annapurna Pictures, which released What Remains Of Edith Finch earlier this year, Telling Lies promises to be a much larger production than Barlow’s previous one-character, one-location story. Annapurna even hopes to bring in Hollywood talent to fill its cast. According to a report in Variety, Barlow is still writing the game’s script and doesn’t expect shooting to wrap until early 2018, at the latest.
Neither Barlow nor Annapurna would give many hints as to what the new game is about. A press release from the publisher mentions “exploring the extent to which we can ever truly know those we love,” and talking to Variety, Barlow said Telling Lies is “in the vein of a political thriller with three or four key characters.” He also referenced Francis Ford Coppola’s classic film The Conversation and Steve McQueen’s Shame as influences.