Silent Hill: A Movie Made by Gamers
Writer Avery discusses adapting the horror flick.
Roger Avery, who wrote the screenplay for Silent Hill, was himself a fan and enthusiastic player of the original Playstation game.
"I remember it being so advanced in its story, atmosphere, in the way the camera and game engine operated and in how playable it was," the writer explained in an interview with Edge magazine. "I'd been into Resident Evil not only because of the story but because it had a fixed camera – I'm very much into the cinema of games and how that's gradually evolving. So I played Silent Hill, liked it and put it down like any other game before moving on with my life."
And then he met Christophe Gans, a French director who needed someone to re-write a French-language script he had for a Hollywood film version of the game. Avery fit the bill, and he was impressed with Gans's knowledge of Silent Hill and videogames in general. "You name a book and he's read it, name a game and he's played it (and he hasn't just played it casually - he's played it to the end). He's invested the 50-100 hours it's taken to finish all of these games. I don't know how he finds the time - he has no life separate from media. ...I was very comfortable around him and we became very good friends very quickly."
Instilling the movie with the same eerie, exploratory feel as the game was a difficult task, especially since that meant breaking from the usual movie mold. "Because of that, it became a very difficult script for the studio to accept. We had long passages with no dialogue. Christophe wanted to ensure that when we wanted to have dialogue, we wrote it big. But for the most part, much of the movie is a silent film - we wanted it to be full of silence. So there are scenes where Rose is just wandering through Silent Hill.
"In the script phase, we had long, long moments where seemingly nothing happens. It's all atmosphere – you're falling slowly into a world and experiencing it much like you would in the game."
Avery feels that while films are a good complement to videogames, there's a danger of game designers trying to make their creations too passive and cinematic, like a film, and less interactive like a game should be. Avery also took a poke at director Uwe Boll (Alone in the Dark) while outlining the responsibility filmmakers have these days with game adaptations:
"Maybe the question is: will Silent Hill make game designers more comfortable? Guys like Uwe Boll have done a lot of damage, and I don't know that one good game adaptation will undo all of it."
In other Silent news, the film's first still shot is up at Bloody Disgusting, showing lead actresses Radha Mitchell ("Rose") and Laurie Holden ("Cybil Bennet"). The movie also stars Sean Bean (The Fellowship of the Ring, The Island) as Rose's husband Christopher. It opens April 21st.
Writer Avery discusses adapting the horror flick.
Roger Avery, who wrote the screenplay for Silent Hill, was himself a fan and enthusiastic player of the original Playstation game.
"I remember it being so advanced in its story, atmosphere, in the way the camera and game engine operated and in how playable it was," the writer explained in an interview with Edge magazine. "I'd been into Resident Evil not only because of the story but because it had a fixed camera – I'm very much into the cinema of games and how that's gradually evolving. So I played Silent Hill, liked it and put it down like any other game before moving on with my life."
And then he met Christophe Gans, a French director who needed someone to re-write a French-language script he had for a Hollywood film version of the game. Avery fit the bill, and he was impressed with Gans's knowledge of Silent Hill and videogames in general. "You name a book and he's read it, name a game and he's played it (and he hasn't just played it casually - he's played it to the end). He's invested the 50-100 hours it's taken to finish all of these games. I don't know how he finds the time - he has no life separate from media. ...I was very comfortable around him and we became very good friends very quickly."
Instilling the movie with the same eerie, exploratory feel as the game was a difficult task, especially since that meant breaking from the usual movie mold. "Because of that, it became a very difficult script for the studio to accept. We had long passages with no dialogue. Christophe wanted to ensure that when we wanted to have dialogue, we wrote it big. But for the most part, much of the movie is a silent film - we wanted it to be full of silence. So there are scenes where Rose is just wandering through Silent Hill.
"In the script phase, we had long, long moments where seemingly nothing happens. It's all atmosphere – you're falling slowly into a world and experiencing it much like you would in the game."
Avery feels that while films are a good complement to videogames, there's a danger of game designers trying to make their creations too passive and cinematic, like a film, and less interactive like a game should be. Avery also took a poke at director Uwe Boll (Alone in the Dark) while outlining the responsibility filmmakers have these days with game adaptations:
"Maybe the question is: will Silent Hill make game designers more comfortable? Guys like Uwe Boll have done a lot of damage, and I don't know that one good game adaptation will undo all of it."
In other Silent news, the film's first still shot is up at Bloody Disgusting, showing lead actresses Radha Mitchell ("Rose") and Laurie Holden ("Cybil Bennet"). The movie also stars Sean Bean (The Fellowship of the Ring, The Island) as Rose's husband Christopher. It opens April 21st.
), but I still look forward to this. I loved Gans's Brotherhood Of The Wolf, and that SH producer/composer Akira Yamaoka provides the music (loved the stuff I heard in the game trailers) is icing on the cake.
