Return to Silent Hill is finally about to begin shooting. A new report published yesterday by Deadline reveals that the works on the movie adaptation of Silent Hill 2 are all set to begin next month in Germany and Eastern Europe, which have been selected as the ideal locations to replicate the cursed titular town.
Deadline also reveals that the two protagonists have been cast. Jeremy Irvine will play James Sunderland; you might know him from his performance in movies like War Horse or The Railway Man or the TV series Treadstone, a spin-off of The Bourne franchise.
Mary, the missing wife that James so desperately seeks, will be played in Return to Silent Hill by Hannah Emily Anderson. She is primarily known for her performances in Jigsaw and X-Men: Dark Phoenix.
The director of Return to Silent Hill, Christophe Gans, said in a statement:
Return to Silent Hill is a mythological love story about someone so deeply in love, they’re willing to go to hell to save someone. I’m delighted to have the wonderful talents of both Jeremy Irvine and Hannah Emily Anderson take us on this journey into a psychological horror world that I hope will both satisfy and surprise fans of Silent Hill.
Victor Hadida, who’s producing the movie alongside David Wulf and Molly Hassell, added:
Christophe and I have been working closely with our partners at Konami, as they update the video game, to also create a version of Silent Hill for the theatrical audiences of today. You will still find the iconic monsters – but there will also be new designs. We are confident that this new film and Konami’s updated game together will propel the franchise forward for years to come.
Indeed, Christophe Gans (who directed the previous movie released in 2006 and is also writing Return to Silent Hill alongside William Josef Schneider and Sandra Vo-Anh) had previously shared ahead of KONAMI’s official announcements that there were multiple games in production.
That all became official a few days later when the Japanese studio announced the long-rumored Silent Hill 2 remake, the spin-offs Silent Hill f and Silent Hill Townfall, and the interactive series Silent Hill: Ascension. Out of this new wave of projects in the psychological horror franchise, the one closest to release seems to be the most anticipated one, the Silent Hill 2 remake, in development at Polish studio Bloober Team with Unreal Engine 5. It will be released for PC (Steam) and PlayStation 5.
