The video game film genre seems to be back on a hot streak in the past few years with the arrivals of Detective Pikachu and the upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog. Now French director Christophe Gans has revealed he is ready to return to the world with a new adaptation of Silent Hill, as well as bringing Koei Tecmo’s Fatal Frame to the big screen! (Via BloodyDisgusting)
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In an interview with French website Allocine, and translated by various sites including Rely on Horror, Gans revealed that he has “two horror film projects” in the works with help from producer Victor Hadida, with whom he worked with and his brother Samuel Hadida on the 2006 Silent Hill film.
“I am working on the adaptation of the video game Project Zero (editor’s note, known as Fatal Frame in the US),” Gans said. “The film will take place in Japan. I especially don’t want to uproot the game from its Japanese haunted house setting, and we’re also working on a new Silent Hill. The Silent Hill project will always be anchored in this atmosphere of a small American town, ravaged by Puritanism. I think it’s time to make a new one.“
Gans made his splash with American audiences on the first Silent Hill film, which he spent five years attempting to get the rights to the series and sending a video interview to Konami to pitch his plan for the film and his adoration for the games, which won him the job. Though not a critical hit, the film was well-received by audiences for its faithfulness to the tone and atmosphere of the games, even if the story itself took some liberties from its source material. The film was also a box office hit, grossing over $100 million on a $50 million budget, with Gans announcing shortly after its release that a sequel was greenlit by the producers.
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That sequel would become 2012’s Silent Hill: Revelation, with Gans choosing not to write and direct due to interest on other projects, and was a critical disaster with critics and audiences alike for its incomprehensible plot, lackluster writing and a tame effort to recreate the atmosphere of its predecessor and source material.
A Fatal Frame film adaptation has been in the works for 17 years, going all the way back to DreamWorks developing it in 2003 with Robert Fyvolent and Mark R. Brinker being attached to script the project, while John Rogers was set to produce and brought in Steven Spielberg (Ready Player One) to help polish the script. But no news had come in the years since, the only update being in 2014 that the film was still in the works and that Samuel Hadida would now be the primary producer on the project.
Given Gans’ adoration for the source materials and desire to remain true to them, fans should have some excitement over his announcement.
What do you think about a new Silent Hill film and Fatal Frame project from Gans? Let us know below!
