[Infernal Mass]

new interview from EGM's newest issue:

SILENT FILM

Konami’s Silent Hill fogs up the big screen

So you’ve be come understandable wary when it comes to big-screen adaptations of your favorite games. From Super Mario Bros. to Doom, nearly every motion picture inspired by our industry has royally stunk up the multiplex. (The continually fecal torrent of flicks like House of the Dead and Alone in the Dark by German director Uwe Boll certainly doesn’t help matters, either). But one upcoming game-to-film project actually shows promise- Sony Pictures’ Silent Hill (opening April 21). Shortly after an impressive trailer ignited positive buzz among the fan community, EGM sat down with director Christophe Gans (Brotherhood of the Wolf) and composer Akira Yamaoka (director of the Silent Hill games) to discuss their fog drenched horror flick
- Shane Bettenhausen


Q: Did the stigma of working on a videogame-based film deter you?

Christophe Gans: Of course it w as challenging, but it was impossible for me to do Silent Hill and not be serious about it. It’s much easier to adapt Doom, even if it turns out to be a disaster- as we’ve seen (recently)- then to adapt Silent Hill. If you want to adapt Silent Hill, you must be ready to face all of the complexity of the story. For a lazy director, like the one who directed Doom, Silent Hill would be too big of a piece to swallow. I dreamed of adapting this game when I first started playing the first one six years ago. I prepared for this for years, knowing that every fan in the world would wait for me with an ax. I will be sniped when I go to buy my games at my favorite store if I do a bad job. And I understand that. I’m a fan of the games myself-I admire the work of Akira and his friends, and I feel like someone who joined the group and tried to transport that amazing piece of art into a different medium. I love the fandom, and I understand these people and how tense they get when they hear, “Your favorite game is going to be adapted by some French guy.” (Laughs)

Q: It’s impressive that you actually tackled the mythology of the games rather than creating a simpler story…was that something you intended from the project’s outset?

CG: Yes. Although, when we first decided to do Silent Hill, we wanted to base it on the second game. It was very natural, since that game is the favorite of every fan, and it’s the one with the most beautiful world, and it’s the most emotional on of all four. Ever gamer who finished the game knows what I’m talking about…it’s a very tragic and romantic game, and it’s a beautiful adaptation of the myth of Orpheus- going to hell to bring back his love, Eurydice. It was not a real Silent Hill, though; the town serves as the background to the story, but it’s not really about the mythology. So, when we decided to do the film, we realized that it was impossible to talk about Silent Hill and not talk about why this town is like that. So we realized that we had to adapt the first one.

Of course, we were facing the fact that the characters that we love so much were designed for games, and not to be played by real actors. It became readily apparent when we began to write the script and had to deal with the (main) characters, Harry Mason. We realized after two weeks in the writing process that Harry was actually motivated by feminine, almost maternal feelings. It’s not that he’s effeminate, but he’s acting like a woman. So, if we wanted to keep the character, we would have to change other aspects of him…so to be true to the character, we changed Harry into Rose. Essentially, all the people who love Silent Hill are more interested in seeing the mood and atmosphere of the games rather then if a certain character is wearing pants or a dress.

Also when we decided to adapt the characters of Cybil and Dahlia, we found it difficult, mainly because they appear only sparsely in the game. When you have to create a narrative arc for these characters, you have to work really hard to make them work on the big screen. I didn’t want to do what they did with Resident Evil: Apocalypse when they put Jill Valentine onscreen. I mean, that’s a perfect example: I love Jill Valentine…in the game, but not onscreen. I mean, I’m sorry, but just dressing a girl like her doesn’t make her the character.

Q: Did you feel a need to clearly explain the Silent Hill mythology to the audience?

CG: It’s a delicate balance, because in the game we are basically following one character, and this character is more or less finding little clues that tell a backstory. In a film, we can change the perspective when we want. We can show what Silent Hill was like before it became a ghost town. We can show precisely what Silent Hill is like in reality- we’ve never seen that before. In the game, there are two Silent Hills: the Silent Hill of darkness and the Silent Hill of fog. But when you have to tell a story about something that happened 30 years ago in a town, and that town suddenly became like the Bermuda Triangle, you have to add two more dimensions: the reality and Silent Hill from 30 years ago. So basically, we had to deal with four dimensions, and jump between them at will. It makes the concept very exciting; it’s very compelling to juggle the story between those different incarnations of the same place.