The Hollywood Byte #13: Climbing the Silent Hill

Hollywood producer Samuel Hadida has been active in the video game convergence business since 2000, when he picked up the rights to Capcom's hit horror game, Resident Evil. With a third movie in pre-production in Mexico, Resident Evil: Extinction, and Silent Hill ready to bow at theaters, Hadida is turning his attention to the big screen adaptation of Onimusha.

"Onimusha will be an exciting movie that will be faithful to the game and to the Samurai and the 18th Century Japanese time period," said Hadida, who noted that a director for the project will be chosen in about a month. "This will be another big budget project that will have large armies, period sets, costumes, and a lot of special effects. There will be a lot of outdoor sequences, but the film will also have castles and other interior sets that will need to be designed."

Onimusha will be shot in China, which will double for Japan. The crew will recreate feudal Japanese villages, castles and other backdrops to bring the game's environments to life. Hadida said that while the director does not need to be a gamer, he will need to understand the code of the Samurai and understand 18th Century Japanese culture.

The movie is expected to go into pre-production this December for a few months with shooting expected to commence in February or March of 2007 in China following the Chinese New Year. Once complete, the movie could arrive about a year later during the same spring time frame that Silent Hill is opening this year.

Hadida was recently in Tokyo to discuss the movie version of Onimusha with Capcom executives and the creators of the game. The producer has worked closely with the creators of each game he has helped bring to the big screen.

Resident Evil Silent Hill: The Movie

"As filmmakers, it's important that the writer and director of the film have a respect for the game and its fans," said Hadida. "With Silent Hill, both (director) Christophe Gans and (screenwriter) Roger Avary were gamers. They were fans of the Silent Hill games. They wanted to create a movie that did justice to the game and reproduce the fear and loneliness that the game purveyed."

Hadida said it's important to be faithful to the game when transferring its universe to the big screen. He said he was able to get the Silent Hill game rights from Konami amongst several big Hollywood bidders because his pitch remained true to the game's rich mythology. Konami wanted to make sure that the game's rich elements, designs, creatures, and characters were brought to the screen in an authentic way.

"Silent Hill is one of the scariest games I have ever experienced," said Hadida. "It's a step beyond anything I had seen in the cinema. Its mythology and the dimension of the storytelling has an amazing concept to translate to the big screen."

Hadida said the film will incorporate elements from the first three Silent Hill games. One change that director Gans made was to make the protagonist of the film a mother (played by Radha Mitchell) rather than a father. Hadida said this allows the film to explore motherhood and the loneliness of a lost daughter.