Return To Silent Hill: Everything We Know So Far

It's about time for "Silent Hill" to make a comeback. The popular horror video game franchise is not only getting several new entries but also another film adaptation. "Return to Silent Hill" will become the third movie in the series, though it sounds as if director Christopher Gans is making more of a reboot than a proper sequel. The film will serve to accompany the upcoming video game titles in a massive wave of "Silent Hill" projects that publisher Konami announced last October.

The series revolves around the titular town of Silent Hill (located in Maine in the games and West Virginia in the movies), a place imbued with an ancient and terrible power that manifests its visitors' inner fears, traumas, and guilt in the form of misshapen creatures. Each entry follows a different character and their hellish adventures into Silent Hill, where they have to contend with the Order, the sinister cult that carries out blood sacrifices in order to resurrect an apocalyptic god. The new "Silent Hill" lineup includes the mainline 1960s Japan-set "Silent Hill f," the Annapurna Interactive spin-off "Silent Hill: Townfall," an interactive live media event called "Silent Hill: Ascension," and a remake of "Silent Hill 2," the latter of which serves as the basis for the film "Return to Silent Hill."

"Silent Hill 2" is often considered the high point in the series, combining both the visceral and the psychological to create an all-encompassing horror that is, quite literally in the Jungian sense, the stuff of nightmares. The story focuses on James Sunderland, who arrives at Silent Hill at the behest of a letter he receives from his supposedly deceived wife Mary. Along the way, the player learns more about James' backstory and his former relationship as he encounters other lost souls in the town and comes face-to-face with the intimidating Pyramid Head, a bulky executioner-type humanoid monster that has become the poster child of the franchise.

Suffice it to say that, without spoiling anything, James is hiding some very dark secrets regarding his marriage, and he learns that Silent Hill is not a good place to be to get over repressed emotional anguish. Interestingly, the game has six different endings, though two of them are jokes that are only available on a replay. Still, it would be daring if Gans chose to conclude his script with Mira the Dog.

Gans directed the first "Silent Hill" film back in 2006 with a screenplay co-written by Roger Avary of "Pulp Fiction" fame, and is returning to the series after the much-maligned "Silent Hill: Revelation" in 2012. According to Deadline, the filmmaker is also writing the screenplay with Sandra Oh-Van, who co-wrote a 2014 French version of "Beauty and the Beast" with him, as well as William Josef Schneider. The film will star Jeremy Irvine ("War Horse," "Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again") as James and Hannah Emily Anderson ("Jigsaw," "The Purge" TV series) as Mary. Though no one else has been cast yet, Pyramid Head will unsurprisingly appear once again.

Victor Hadida, brother of late "Silent Hill" and "Resident Evil" film producer Samuel Hadida, is producing this iteration. Molly Hassell of Hassell Free Productions will produce alongside Hadida, a partnering that's also in charge of the upcoming remake of "The Crow." Filming begins next month in Germany and unidentified locations in Eastern Europe.