Director Paul W.S. Anderson is aiming to make his video game adaptation The House of the Dead a “very, very scary” movie
A good portion of Paul W.S. Anderson’s filmmaking career has consisted of video game adaptations, with his writing and/or directing credits including Mortal Kombat (1995), Monster Hunter, and six Resident Evil movies. (He also wrote and directed Alien vs. Predator, which wasn’t a video game adaptation, but there was a video game of the concept long before the movie came along.) Next up for him is a film version of the Sega game The House of the Dead. Originally released in 1997, The House of the Dead spawned a franchise that includes several sequels and spin-offs, as well as a remake. Uwe Boll directed a film adaptation back in 2003, and that received a sequel in 2005 that was directed by Michael Hurst. Now, Anderson is plotting an adaptation that he promises will be “very, very scary.”
In the game, players take on the role of AMS agents, a government agency tasked with thwarting the conspiracies of organizations that threaten the world. The title comes from the bureau they work for, because their life expectancies are brief. Anderson is producing the new film adaptation with his producing partner Jeremy Bolt, Sega’s Toru Nakahara, and Story Kitchen’s Dmitri M. Johnson, Mike Goldberg, and Dan Jevons. Timothy I. Stevenson serves as an executive producer.
When asked for a status update, Anderson told Variety, “The script is almost done. We’re aiming to shoot in the fourth quarter of this year. I’m really going to push the envelope on this one. It’s going to be something different for me.” He was then asked if the movie is going to be “full-tilt horror.” He replied, “Yes, exactly that. It’s going to be immersive and very, very scary. It’ll all play out in real time, so it reflects the experience of playing the video game. The only time it stops is when you beat the game or you die. That’s going to be the only way out.“
Anderson previously told Deadline, “I’ve loved the video game since the ’90s. Back then I was a big player of video games in arcades, which is how I happened upon Mortal Kombat. And pretty much at the same time, I was also playing a lot of House of the Dead. It’s a title I’ve always loved. The IP has grown in strength, and now it’s really cross-generational. I was one of the original players, but now I have teenage kids who also play. That is the real attraction for me, that you’ve got a cross-generational piece of IP. We’re going to base the movie on House of the Dead 3, and if you know the mythology that is all about family conflict, amidst the action and scares. It’s about a woman, Lisa Rogan, who’s attempting to rescue her father. And it’s also about Daniel Curien, who’s the son of the man who caused this mutant outbreak in the first place and who has to deal with the sins of the father. My approach will be to reflect what this hyper-immersive, kinetic video game is, which is why Zack Snyder took these creatures and made them fast moving. This is a full-on terror ride. It’s different than what we did with Resident Evil, where there were lots of traps and puzzles and things to be figured out. House of the Dead is at heart a light rail shooter game, so it drags you straight into the middle of the action. I’m going to make a movie that mirrors that approach and plays out in real time, dragging the audience straight into the action. It’s not going to be kind of lumbered with a whole bunch of back story that might exclude people who know nothing about House of the Dead. Everyone’s going to be on the same page. Everyone’s going to get sucked straight into the action and learn about the characters and the plot, as they have 90 minutes to basically escape the most extreme haunted house you’ve ever been in.“
The “haunted house” he mentions is actually an abandoned research facility that has been overtaken by creatures.
Are you looking forward to seeing a “very, very scary” based on The House of the Dead? Share your thoughts on the next Paul W.S. Anderson project by leaving a comment below.
