French filmmaker Christophe Gans has revealed his plans to develop two new horror movies based on video games, including another Silent Hill sequel and a Fatal Frame adaptation. Though Gans wrote and directed the original Silent Hill movie from 2006, he had no part in the 2012 sequel, passing the torch to new writer and director Michael J. Bassett.
Now, speaking with the French publication Allocine, Gans teases his return to the horror franchise by claiming he’s already begun developing Silent Hill 3. Translated, here are Gans’ comments from the interview.
“I have two horror film projects with Victor Hadida. I am working on the adaptation of the video game Project Zero (Fatal Frame). The film will take place in Japan. I certainly don’t want to uproot the game from its Japanese haunted house setting. And we’re also working on a new Silent Hill. The 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.”
Concerning the new Silent Hill, all we have to go on at this point are these vague comments about its setting from Gans. For now, we can only speculate over which characters or actors we might possibly see returning in some capacity, or if Gans will be telling a completely new story elsewhere in the titular ghost town. Even with little information, this is still very interesting news for fans of the original Silent Hill movie who were left underwhelmed by Silent Hill: Revelation. Bringing Gans back into the franchise to continue his adapted version of the Silent Hill story might be the best way to go if a third movie is going to be made.
Gans co-wrote the original Silent Hill with Roger Avary and Nicolas Boukhrief. Using heavy inspiration from the original video game, the movie follows Radha Mitchell as a young mother looking for her lost daughter in a foggy ghost town. Sean Bean, Laurie Holden, Deborah Kara Unger, and Kim Coates also starred. The Silent Hill movie was a box office success, but like many video game adaptations, reviews were mixed with critics, though fans of the source material largely enjoyed it.
As seen above, Gans also mentions his plans to develop a movie based on the video game Project Zero, which is also known in the United States as Fatal Frame. To date, no movie adaptations have yet been adapted from the horror game series, though it hasn’t been for a lack of trying. Back in 2003, it was announced that a movie adaptation was in the works at DreamWorks with Robert Fyvolent and Mark R. Brinker penning the script. For one reason or another, the project has been stalling ever since in development hell, and it now appears Gans has taken the reins.
With Resident Evil in the midst of getting a reboot of its own, perhaps Gans has a point when he says the time is now for there to be another Silent Hill movie. After all, Sonic the Hedgehog is also getting ready to race into theaters, and no less than two new Mortal Kombat movies are on the way, so maybe this is part of the rise of video game adaptations. This news comes to us from Allocine.
