Last October, after literal years of silence surrounding the once-iconic game franchise, Konami dropped a ton of teasers for upcoming Silent Hill media, including Christophe Gans‘ long-awaited return to the Silent Hill movie series. That wait is almost over, as Deadline have confirmed today that the director’s upcoming project titled Return To Silent Hill is due to start filming soon, with Ashland Hill Media Finance co-financing.
Konami’s announcement previously confirmed that Return To Silent Hill will be a film adaptation of the 2001 psychological horror classic Silent Hill 2, with Gans explaining the plot as:
“The film tells the story of a young guy coming back to Silent Hill, where he has known a great love and what he’s going to find is a pure nightmare.”
Just how closely Return To Silent Hill will stick to Silent Hill 2‘s story is yet to be confirmed, as Gans’ 2006 Silent Hill takes clear inspiration and story beats from the first three games but is not a shot-for-shot adaptation of any of them. What is guaranteed from this adaptation though is that the franchise’s most enduring icon Pyramid Head will be making a triumphant return to the big screen, great knife and all.
Deadline also notes that producers Victor Hadida (who also produced another of the biggest video game adaptations in the form of 2002’s Resident Evil) and Molly Hassell (Braven) are behind Return To Silent Hill, with The Veterans handling international sales.
Gans’ first Silent Hill adaptation was a modest success, garnering pretty unfavorable reviews at the time, but has since gone on to become somewhat of a cult classic – and one of the more memorable video game movie adaptations. Since then, it’s been a pretty rocky few years for fans of the franchise, but Konami’s October announcement has restored a lot of faith with some super exciting game news; including a hugely anticipated remake of Silent Hill 2, a mysterious new title named Silent Hill: Townfall, the interactive Silent Hill: Ascension and the 1960s set Silent Hill: f. Furthermore, another mysterious project reportedly titled Silent Hill: The Short Message has received a PlayStation 5 rating from the Taiwan Digital Game Rating Committee
Casting and release details for Return To Silent Hiill are still under wraps, so while you wait, why not get reacquainted with Mr Gans and the foggy town by revisiting the teaser below:
