Last month Konami announced that they had canceled work on the hugely anticipated Silent Hills, which was to feature both Hideo Kojima and filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro collaborating together.
Recently, Del Toro spoke to IGN about the matter, expressing his disappointment with Konami’s decision making by calling it a “scorched earth approach” that “was not a gentle and ambiguous cancellation.”
He explained that his and Kojima’s vision for Silent Hills was to “take the technology and make it as cutting-edge as we could in creating terror in the house,” adding that “what made Silent Hill so great was that you had the atmosphere but then you a pay-off with a very active, very intense series of moments. We wanted to do some stuff that I’m pretty sure – just in case it ever comes back, which honestly I would love for somebody to change their mind and we can do it – but in case it comes back there was some stuff that was very new, and I wouldn’t want to spoil it.”
The Walking Dead star Norman Reedus was also onboard to portray the protagonist of Silent Hills, and according to Del Toro was “super happy” to do so.
Del Toro is also aware of a Change.org petition to revive Silent Hills, which has achieved nearly 150,000 signatures in less than a month. “I would add my signature to it, and hope that someone pays attention,” he said.
The cancellation of Silent Hills is a particularly bitter pill for the acclaimed filmmaker to swallow, considering that his previous attempted foray into videogames, a game called Insane, went belly up when its publisher THQ shut down. He said, “I’ve tried twice and I don’t know if I’ll ever come back to the form. In one instance, the company went down, and in the second, the completely unexpected happened, which was Kojima and Konami separating. It’s kind of left me reeling.”
If there’s one sign of hope from this fracas, its that Del Toro and Kojima are still in touch and are eager to work together in some capacity. “He knows he would be the only guy I would follow to the ends of the earth on anything. I think if anything can be rescued, I will be more than happy.”