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EXCLUSIVE: Ashland Hill Media Finance is to co-finance a slate of four films at various stages of production, including Christophe Gans’ horror reboot Return To Silent Hill, based on the hit Konami video game.

Producers Victor Hadida and Molly Hassell are behind Return To Silent Hill, which The Veterans is handling for international sales. We covered the project back at AFM. Filming is due to get underway soon.

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With filming due to get underway very soon for Christophe Gans‘ Return to Silent Hill, you’re probably wondering just what exactly the details are for the film, including the story and cast. Luckily, German website Filmportal has provided a few details, including some preliminary casting and a few changes from the game’s story.

According to the site (translated, of course), Return to Silent Hill will be a German-British-Serbian co-production between Munich-based Maze Pictures with Metropolitan and Davis Films from Paris, and The Electric Shadow Company and Lotus Wallace from London. Half of the filming will take place in Germany, with Munich, Penzing, Nuremberg, Rossberg, and Lake Ammer being the locations of choice.

Alongside a screenplay from Gans, the film will be photographed by Benoit Debie, with Felicity Abbott handling production design and Sébastian Prangère serving as editor.

The synopsis goes like this: “Driven by the shadows of his past, James Sunderland returns to Silent Hill to find his lost love, Mary Crane (note the name change from the game). But the dark, depressing small town is no longer the place from his memories. James meets characters who seem all too familiar and who try to divert him from his search for Mary. The longer he searches for Mary, the more he begins to wonder if this is still reality – or if he has fallen into the dark underworld of Jacob Crane.”

Obviously, the story has been changed up from Silent Hill 2 (Mary’s name, the new Jacob Crane character). Keep in mind that this is again all translated, so there is a potential for mistranslation.

As for casting, the only name mentioned is British actor Jeremy Irvine, whose horror credits include 2015’s The Woman in Black: Angel of Death, as well as starring in Steven Spielberg’s War Horse. Filmportal’s listing seems to imply that Irvine is starring as James Sunderland, though again, nothing has been confirmed as of yet.

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https://variety.com/wp-content/uploa...0&h=667&crop=1

The “Silent Hill” film franchise continues with “Return to Silent Hill,” the latest adaptation of the hit horror anthology video game series. Variety has the first look at the famed monster Pyramid Head in the Christophe Gans-directed film, which is previewing at the Cannes Film Festival.

After helming the “Silent Hill” in 2006, Gans returns to direct the next installment from a script he co-with Sandra Vo-Anh and William Josef Schneider. The project is produced by Victor Hadida for Davis Films, Molly Hassell for Hassell Free Productions and David Wulf.

“Return to Silent Hill” is based on “Silent Hill 2,” the second and most popular game in Konami’s successful video game series, which has been named to top video game lists by Time Magazine, IGN and more. Originally released in 2001 for PlayStation 2, “Silent Hill 2,” is widely considered the best game in the series (and introduced the Pyramid Head character.)

Jeremy Irvine stars in the film as James, a man broken after his relationship with the love of his life, Mary (Hannah Emily Anderson), ends. According to its official synopsis, the action kicks off “when a mysterious letter from her calls him back to Silent Hill, he finds a once-recognizable town transformed by an unknown evil. While James desperately searches for Mary, he encounters terrifying creatures and begins to unravel the mystery of what happened to the town. But as he descends deeper into the darkness the secrets he uncovers lead to a horrifying truth, and James finds himself struggling to hold on long enough to save his one true love.”

The Veterans are handling international sales for the film, with CAA Media Financing representing domestic rights. A rough cut of the film screened Thursday.

“Return to Silent Hill” is the third film in the series, following 2006’s “Silent Hill,” which starred Radha Mitchell, Sean Bean and Laura Holden and grossed $100 million worldwide, and its 2012 sequel “Silent Hill: Revelation.” The horror video game franchise attracts more than 10 million gamers worldwide and continues to expand its footprint, too. In 2022, Konami announced plans to reboot the “Silent Hill 2” game, as well as to create three other new games.

Irvine is represented by UTA, Independent Talent Group and Schreck Rose Dapello Adams Berlin & Dunham. Anderson is represented by Gersh, Atlas Artists and GGA. Gans is represented by CAA.

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