<i>Silent Hill 2</i> movie confirmed

There are a slew of film adaptations of video games in production right now, Hitman, Alice, and Postal, for example. Now, according to director Christophe Gans, Silent Hill 2 can be added to that list.

Gans, the Antibes-born director of the first Silent Hill movie, has revealed that a second SH film is on the way and that it will correct the mistakes of the first.

The original Silent Hill, released on April 21, 2006, told the story of Rose Da Silva, a mother who sets out to find a town called Silent Hill, which her daughter Sharon calls to in her sleep.

Gans confirmed in an interview with French magazine DVDrama that "there will indeed be a Silent Hill 2 and it is officially ordered and is already well underway. Once he has finished his adaptation of Driver, Roger Avary will be [working on the script], helped by his friend Neil Gaiman."

Roger Avary is a Canadian-born director, producer, and writer. He has previously worked on the screenplays for the first Silent Hill and Killing Zoe and won an Oscar for his work on Pulp Fiction.

British author Neil Gaiman is most famous for his series of Sandman graphic novels and has also worked on screenplays for the TV series of his novel Neverwhere, as well as Mirrormask and Princess Mononoke.

However, Gaiman's actual contribution is now under some doubt, after a post on his own blog stated, "Yesterday I discovered pretty much all of my FAQ messages were people asking whether I was really going to be writing the Silent Hill sequel with Roger Avary. I'm afraid that I don't think I am--I mean, it's the first thing I've ever heard of it, and I'm sure that if they make a sequel Roger would want to write it himself."

Gans' original statement has since been retranslated, so until there is clarification from Gans or Gaiman, some mystery still shrouds the title's development.

Gans added that he may not have time to take on the project himself, due to his commitments on the adaptation of another video game project, Onimusha.

When asked who he would like to see direct if he were unable to, Gans told DVDrama that, "If I cannot take on Silent Hill 2 myself, the director who does would need to continue in the same style as the first film. One does not want to make a Hollywood-style movie, and I think that it makes sense if the director of the sequel is European--in the best case scenario, French."

He also revealed that he was planning a special two-disc collector's-edition DVD of the original Silent Hill, but that would be a long time coming, possibly not for two and a half to three years, and that he intends to start work on it only after finishing up Onimusha.