The House of the Dead Film Adaptation in the Works From Resident Evil Director Paul W.S. Anderson
The House of the Dead will be the latest video game to head to the big screen, and it’s got a seasoned adaptation director at the helm.
Per a Deadline report on Thursday, Paul W.S. Anderson will write and direct the big-screen version of The House of the Dead, the Sega horror shooter series. He’ll also be producing alongside his longtime creative partner Jeremy Bolt.
And it seems Anderson just can’t stay away from this genre, with The House of the Dead marking his fourth adaptation of a video game property. Previously, Anderson directed Mortal Kombat (1995), Resident Evil (2002), and most recently Monster Hunter (2020).
Anderson also gave an interview to Deadline where he gave a quick glimpse as to how he’ll be approaching this adaptation, revealing that he’ll be basing it on the story of The House of the Dead 3. “If you know the mythology, that is all about family conflict, amidst the action and scares,” he told the outlet.
“It’s about a woman, Lisa Rogan, who’s attempting to rescue her father,” he explained. “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.”
Anderson added he’s been a fan of The House of the Dead games since the ’90s, which is when the Sega series kicked off. It became known not only for its use of the light gun, but for its different take on the zombie genre, featuring fast-moving creatures.
“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 (in 2004’s Dawn of the Dead),” Anderson said. “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 only the latest big-screen take on a Sega game, with the Sonic the Hedgehog movies continuing to move along with Paramount Pictures. And just earlier this month, Sega announced a film adaptation of its Shinobi movies at Universal.
Interestingly, the Deadline report notes that Sega has been protective of The House of the Dead IP. However, Toru Nakahara, Sega’s Head of Production for Movies/TV, tells the outlet that the Sonic films “changed the dynamic toward our transmedia policies and since then we’ve been actively developing a lot of productions, looking at it as an initiative to expand the whole Sega brand.”
Further details, including a cast or release window, are still pending. For more on the series, check out our review of the 2022 House of the Dead remake, where we said it “can be an enjoyable return to the classic arcade rail shooter, but performance hiccups and frustrating controls are scarier enemies than the zombies themselves.”
Alex Stedman is a Senior News Editor with IGN, overseeing entertainment reporting. When she’s not writing or editing, you can find her reading fantasy novels or playing Dungeons & Dragons.
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