Silent Hill has been dead for years, killed off as a result of developer Konami deciding to switch focus from video games to gambling. But now that long-mouldering corpse is twitching, as the last few weeks have seen many rumors that the venerable horror franchise is making a comeback. We’ve heard that Hideo Kojima’s cancelled Silent Hills project is back in development, that both Sony and Microsoft are interested in purchasing the IP and that there’s a new movie in the works.
Sadly, talk of a new game appears to be wishful thinking, with Konami saying that the rumors are “not true.” However, it appears that at least the film might indeed be going ahead. Director Christophe Gans has mentioned at a festival that he was working on a cinematic reboot of the property and that seems to be progressing nicely, as we’ve heard from our sources – the same ones who said Han was returning to the Fast & Furious franchise and a new Scream movie is in development – that Star Trek, Dredd and The Boys‘ Karl Urban is being eyed for the role of Harry Mason. Meanwhile, they’re also apparently searching for someone to play his adopted daughter, Heather Mason.
If this is the case, then it seems that the project is taking inspiration from the 1999 PlayStation original, which sees Harry journeying through the surreal and twisted town in search of his daughter. Heather later goes on to star in Silent Hill 3 as a teenager and embarks on her own terrifying adventure. As such, casting rumors for both these characters fit in with the gossip that this will be a reboot.
In any case, if this project happens, here’s hoping it kicks off a reinvigoration of Silent Hill. As someone who prefers psychological horror over the B-movie stylings of Resident Evil (though I love both of them), it’s frustrating to see Capcom’s franchise continually going from strength to strength while Silent Hill remains inert.
