'Silent Hill 2' Creeps Closer Along

Late last night, the Hollywood Reporter broke word that writer Roger Avary and producer Samuel Hadida will be returning to the smoke laden town of Silent Hill for production company Davis Films. It's a small and relatively vague news item, to be sure, but it does lay out the time-frame for production will begin in 2010 when filming on Hadida's other current video game property, Resident Evil 4, ends.

Beyond that, things are hazy. There is no confirmation that Christophe Gans will be returning to captain the sequel, nor is there a hint as to whether or not star Radha Mitchell will return in some capacity. I'm sure, though, that these signs of progress are bound to lead to firm declaration of who else is involved in the next two or three months.

Personally, if the audience is going to take a trip back to the town of ash babies, pyramid heads, and confusingly sexy demon nurses, I'd rather have Gans retained as a director over Roger Avary as the screenwriter. Visually, Silent Hill is a dark masterwork, but the poorly paced and often nonsensical script is what holds it back from being a good film. It's going to take someone with a demented eye for production design to make anything resembling a worthy follow-up, so until Davis Films names someone who fits that bill, I'm, uh, cautiously indifferent.