I Can Already Hear the Sirens
Silent Hill has had a tricky history with adaptations. As one of the first big budget adaptations of a Survival Horror game, The original film struggled between doing its own thing and sticking too close to the source material, resulting in a film which was visually stunning and filled with great setpieces and monster design, but heavy on exposition and very different to the source material. The sequel, based on Silent Hill 3, was critically reviled and tried to merge the mythology of both the original film and the source material, resulting in a film where, despite a few great setpieces and interesting monsters, the most notable thing was Sean Bean’s inexplicable survival.
For those of you who’ve missed our extensive coverage of Silent Hill in recent months, as speculation for a new game hit overdrive, Silent Hill is a horror franchise set in the titular town, which has an unfortunate habit of drawing people to a nightmarish otherworld to face their fears, atone for their sins, and try to survive whatever fresh hell it has to throw at them.
Now, it looks like we might be seeing a new attempt at adapting the series, if WeGotThisCovered.com are to be believed.
The site claim that one of their sources – the same source which told them about the since confirmed The Witcher prequel, Extraction sequel, and third seasons of The Umbrella Academy, which means that they’re likely a source within Netflix – have told the site that a Netflix are working on a television show based on the legendary horror franchise, with Oscar-winning actress Charlize Theron eyed for the role of the female lead. The source was evasive on whether she’s signed contracts as of yet, however.
Will we see an original story set in the same town? Given that the Otherworld changed dramatically based on who it’s tormenting at the moment, with even members of the cast, such as Silent Hill 2’s Laura, being completely unaware of the nightmarish events their companions have been drawn into. It’s possible that we’ll see an adaptation of one of the games, with Charlize playing a legendary Silent Hill character like Mary/Maria, Claudia, Cybil, or even following in Radha Mitchell’s footsteps and playing a gender-flipped version of one of the series’ male protagonists.
What are your theories about the rumour? Let us know in the comments, on Twitter, or on Facebook.