Guillermo Del Toro On ‘Silent Hills’ Cancelation And Possible Revival
Guillermo Del Toro shares the sorrow of fans who saw the partnership of himself, Kojima and Norman Reedus on Silent Hills as the first legitimate ray of hope for a franchise that has had several missteps. Konami, the publisher and owner of the Silent Hill franchise, is transitioning from the console video game business into mobile gaming among other things leaving Silent Hill, which has only seen one portable title, in the lurch. The departure of Kojima from Konami has been rumored to center around this transition and the collateral damage includes the cancelation of Silent Hills.
IGN’s Daniel Krupa spoke to the award winning director/producer Guillermo Del Toro in regards to his next movie, Crimson Peak. The conversation turned to the cancelation of Silent Hills and the grammatically incorrect, but passionate petition at Change.org pleading with Konami to pick up the pieces and continue development of Silent Hills. Del Toro said to IGN during the interview, “Norman was super happy, Hideo was super happy, and so was I. I know there’s a petition going on the internet and it’s gathering signatures. I would add my signature to it, and hope that someone pays attention.”
As of this writing, the petition has garnered 146,000 digital signatures. Fans are also clambering to get their hands on PlayStation 4 units with working copies of P.T., the playable teaser for Silent Hills as the Inquisitr has covered previously.
Hideo Kojima and Guillermo Del Toro are two auteur’s who are at the top of their respective craft. Kojima is best known for his work on the Metal Gear franchise as well as Zone of the Enders amongst other titles he has helped produce through his production company. Del Toro has gained notoriety through his adaptation of comic book character Hellboy, dark fantasy title Pan’s Labyrinth and giant mech disaster movie Pacific Rim. The combination of the the two talents along with actor Norman Reedus (The Walking Dead, Boondock Saints) combined with the absolute sublime terror filled experience that P.T. showed gamers the potential for a unique Silent Hill experience. The nightmare was not to be as Konami officially canceled the game and allowed the contracts with Del Torro and Reedus to expire.
Silent Hills would have been return to the game being developed in house by a Konami development studio, Kojima’s former house. The last game produced in house by Konami was Silent Hill 4: The Room for the PlayStation 2. The later games in the series produced by outside studios contracted by Konami with varying degrees of success. While Shattered Memories for the Wii received favorable reviews, Downpour and Homecoming were universally panned by fans of the series and critics alike.
Hope for a Silent Hills revival would come from a studio such as Activision making a deal with Konami to develop the title as a licensed property with Kojima, Del Torro and Reedus attached. While it is not impossible, developing a game such as Silent Hills with that level of talent attached is not a cheap investment and would likely call for compromises such as staggered DLC releases or other trappings that are now the norm in the video game industry. Time will tell if Silent Hills is well and truly dead but the outlook is about as dark as the town itself.
Image Source | Konami
