INT: Christophe Gans

Last Updated on July 28, 2021

Last July,
JoBlo.com/AITH correspondent, Serena
Whitney got to visit the SILENT
HILL
set
in Toronto, Canada. The film is based on the famous video game, was
written by PULP FICTION co- scribe Roger Avary
and directed by fanboy maestro
Christophe Gans (who helmed the great BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF and
CRYING FREEMAN). Gans took some time
on set to discuss the film in detail with the journalists on hand
and here’s what came out of it.

Christophe
Gans

Are you a big video game player?

Yeah, one fourth of my life is in
video games.

Did you study this game carefully?

In fact, actually, I played through
the first one five years ago and I was half in the game when I
called Samuel and said, ‘You know, we have to do a movie from it.’
So we spent five years to talk about this film and just what was
very long is to reach the people of Konami and convince them that
we’ll make something very true to the game because the team of
Silent Hill is a team of three or four guys and they are very, very
conscious about what they achieve. And they didn’t want anybody to
screw their work. So it was like a long work just to convince them
to accept that we’d do the film very carefully.

Trial and error for other processes
of Darkness before settling on digital darkening?

No, we decided- – I was seeing
Collateral, the movie by Michael Mann, and I found that there was
some amazing moment where basically the high definition was catching
any little reflection. I was very concerned about how to transcribe
darkness on screen and how to achieve the same feeling that we have
in the game, where actually a character can be lit by just a Zippo
and nothing else around.

So we made some tests with Dan
Laustsen and we found that it was very interesting to work in high
definition because we’d obtain very, very clean elements and after
we can work and crash into the Darkness as much as we can. Just to
give the feeling that we are exactly in the game of an image which
is without shadow, but in the same time clearly defined. And I was
very happy to work for the first time with high definition and of
course all the rest of the film, the Foggy World and the normal
dimension, the reality would be shot on stock film. So I think it’s
interesting to use the high definition specifically for that
dimension, the Darkness dimension. So that’s what we tried to do.

Any moments drawn from other films?
Concerned that in mimicking the game, you’ll look like the films
that inspired the game?

Of course I’m a big film buff and
when I played through the first game, immediately I saw the
reference to Jacob’s Ladder, the movie by Adrian Lynn. But in
Jacob’s Ladder, it’s basically two sequences. The sequence in the
med ward at the beginning of the film and the sequence in the
hospital where actually you see the framework for Silent Hill. But I
think that as a great creation, Silent Hill has achieved a complete
original world. So basically, I was not afraid to adapt Silent Hill
and I don’t think that you will find any element from the great film
by Adrian Lynn. Jacob’s Ladder is absolutely the roots of Silent
Hill we all agree, and also something from experimental movies like
David Lynch. But I think that Silent Hill is such a beautiful
creation that it exists by itself and without any obvious
references, so I don’t think that you will find any reference into
this film from Jacob’s Ladder or David Lynch films.

Challenges of making a film from a
video game for people who haven’t seen the game?

Exactly. That’s a great challenge
and it’s why when we started to write the film, we were basically
three directors. We were Roger Avary, who is a great screenwriter
but also a director. Nicolas Boukhrief, he’s a friend of mine. He’s
a great director in France and also a big, big video game player.
And myself. So we were three guys, three directors, a roundtable,
three gamers trying to figure out how to make a movie which can
satisfy the game crowd because we belong to them and we don’t want
to fuck up with Silent Hill.

And at the same time, how to make a
movie that somebody who’s not familiar with the game can actually
watch. But, as a great game, Silent Hill has a story inside it. Of
course, that story is much- – part of the time in the background of
the game because you have to play. If you’re careful and if you play
again and again through the first one, the second one and especially
the third one- – the third one which is a sequel to the first one –
– suddenly you realize that there is a huge story behind the game
and that’s what we try to explore in the film.

Is this based on Silent Hill 2?

Actually, I’m going to be very
precise. It’s the adaptation of Silent Hill 1 with some elements
from the third one which is as we know a straight sequel to the
first one, and with the look of the second one which is my favorite.
But I think that it’s not like trying to put three games in one
film. We didn’t try to do that. We really tried to adapt the first
one, but there were so many great elements in the second one and the
third one that we didn’t resist the idea to borrow some of them.

And also because if for example you
read the strategy guide of the third one, you’ll see that actually
the creator of the game tried toe explain what was happening in the
first one. And that’s a very interesting process because the first
game looked like a very spontaneous creation, but after they tried
to make something with it, tried to create a mythology. And that’s
what we are doing with our film, be absolutely true to the mythology
that the creator of Silent Hill started to define from the second
and the third game.

How hard is it to direct Radha in
today’s scene?

That’s interesting, to actually
create a sequence of suspense with the monster not moving. Of course
we are all seeing a lot of movies from Hollywood and we know that
today is make of the movement and the fast cut and everything. I
think it’s interesting sometimes to create an interesting film just
the opposite. I like this idea that that’s a suspense scene among
people who are almost not moving. I think it’s interesting.

Why cast her?

It’s a matter of feeling. If you
play Silent Hill you know that each character has a very special
poetic quality. They are both twisted and sophisticated. We tried to
keep that in mind when we did the casting on this film, not try to
go necessarily to a big name but interesting actor which actually
has developed their talent in independent movies, like Alice Krige
or Deborah Kara Unger. Jodelle Ferland. I mean, they are not like
the usual name, but at the same time, you know that they are going
to bring something special to the film. The film was entirely
financed just on the title, so why resist the temptation to have
great casting? And not only a bunch of name flavor of the month
thing. That’s the idea. And when you look at a great movie like for
example Mulholland Drive by David Lynch, you know that the casting
is interesting because it has an age. It’s made with a certain idea.
And that’s I think very close to what we tried to achieve here.

How much gore?

I think that Silent Hill is not
something gory. It’s more disturbing. I was afraid when I played
Silent Hill because it’s constantly disturbing. We understand more
or less what happened to the little girl and what they did to her.
We tried to keep that disturbing quality but yes, the movie is going
to be sometimes very gory.

Will this movie be PG-13?

No. It’s impossible. This one is
impossible because we have not only gore sequences, but naked
sequences, people naked.

Who?

You will see. And the imagery is
disturbing. I think the imagery is much more like something you can
find in the last novel by Clive Barker. It’s definitely not PG-13. I
have nothing against PG-13. Sometimes you have a great movie like
The Others which is a great film and it’s a PG film. It’s not even a
PG-13, it’s a PG film and it’s frightening and it’s great. But this
one definitely not. The people who played through the game know what
it is. It’s about a ritual where actually we burn a little girl of
10. So I don’t think it’s a PG-13 movie.

How do you balance looking good and
being genuinely scary?

It’s difficult to say now because
I’m right into the process and it’s difficult for me to say oh, it’s
going to be absolutely scary as the game. I hope it’s going to be
scary as the game and I’m doing everything for that. But at the same
time, it’s difficult because we know that the game is not only a
great imagery. It’s also the sound. The sound is amazing in the game
and the music. And of course, by the way, the music in the film is
going to be sung by Akira Yamoaka. That’s the guy who composed for
the game because I know that all the fans around the world, that’s
the first requirement, that the music. It’s a masterpiece. It’s a
beautiful soundtrack and actually I love to use as temp music the
original Silent Hill 2 and 3 soundtrack. It’s great because
immediately we can see if we have really achieved something close to
the game because the music is one of the essence of the game.

Explain the four versions of the
world?

It’s not only an idea in the game,
it’s an idea of the game. The game is built on different levels and
I think that people enjoy the game because intellectually it’s very
refreshing and very challenging to just superimpose action and level
and structure and architecture. You have plenty of game playing on
that and Silent Hill is one of the most challenging because you can
be in a world and suddenly you’re in a different world with the same
structure of the one that you have just explored. We tried to play
with that a lot.

But creating the four looks?

Basically, sometimes we had four
different versions of the same set. I think it’s cool because when
you try to make the adaptation of a video game on screen, it’s not
only try to transcribe the story or the atmosphere but transcribe
also the pleasure. And for me, I have not seen any movie for the
moment adapted from the game which actually gave me that feeling.
Sometimes a movie which is not adapted from a game gives me the
feeling of a game. For example, Starship Troopers. In Starship
Troopers, I have the feeling of being inside a game. But most of the
time the movie adapting the game just uses the title and bastardizes
it.

They don’t appreciate games as an
art form.

Exactly. I’m very respectful, I
think it’s an art form and I’m very humbly trying to reproduce not
only Silent Hill the game, but the experience which was my
experience in Silent Hill. That’s what I tried to achieve and that’s
not easy, but I think at the worst, the movie will be extremely
respectful.

Are there any good video game
movies?

For the moment, no.

Are you doing any POV’s from the
game?

For the moment, I can tell you one
part of the film is shot with crane simply to reproduce the
isometric point of view. I started to do that on Brotherhood of the
Wolf on some sequences. Here it’s extensive. You will see it’s
extensive. You are going to see crane movement flying around
everything and it was fun to reproduce that. We even built sets
which actually are moveable just to have amazing crane movements
which reproduce exactly some of the crane movement that you saw in
the game.

So we went very far with that. By
the way, in the film there is 108 locations or set pieces. So
basically it’s a movie of 110 minutes I think, so basically you will
have an average of 1 set per minute and it’s really big. But simply
because normally, a normal film is confined to a room, to a house.
But we have never seen a whole film with a complete town like that,
so it was a huge challenge in terms of production design especially.

Selection of your production
designer?

She’s a genius (Carol Spier). She’s
a genius and I love her work for so many years, especially her work
with David Cronenberg. I think she’s the right person and I was very
happy to bring her on my project because for a production designer,
it’s like a dream project. We have so many sets to build, so many
things to joint. You will see sometimes there is one movement and
you have three different locations, all blended in the same
movement. We had to do that because Silent Hill doesn’t exist,
especially with this three or four different dimensions.

Are you building them in sequence?

Sometimes I am joining a set on
studio with a location that we have completely revamped. All the
combinations are possible, but all the film has been storyboarded
very precisely and we are following the storyboards like a bunch of
maniacs, because if not we’d be lost. We’d be completely lost
because we have not only to deal with all the sets, but we have to
deal with all different dimensions. We’d be completely lost if we
were not following that precise storyboard. What we did before the
film is almost like for an animation film. Everything was designed
very, very precisely. You should see the boards. You will see that’s
exactly the shot you are seeing on the screen.

How closely does the production
design follow the game?

Oh, very close. My word on the film
was follow the game. We all love the game. Of course we have
sometimes to adapt simply because it’s 3D and suddenly you have to
build something, but yeah we follow very closely. But you can see
that. The color and everything is very, very scrupulously
reproduced. But I’m a gamer and I’m a very strong fan, and I really
want to see the game on screen. I would be so sad if it’s not the
game.

What’s one thing you had to change?

As I told you, something which can
surprise the people who love the game is the fact that now the story
in the background is in the foreground. But that’s of use. So it’s
not going to be only somebody walking during one hour and a half.
It’s impossible. We had to bring that story at one moment more in
the foreground. But anyway, there are two reels in the film which
are exactly like the game: Somebody alone in the street, in the
town, in the Darkness. I hone that to the game to make two reels of
pure gaming experience. But if not, we talk about the mythology as I
said. I talk about the mythology that the people of Silent Hill, the
original creators start to define with the third one. We start now
to explain what happened to the town.

In the game the main character is a
male. Why female leads for the film?

Yeah, it’s almost entirely female
characters. It’s difficult to explain. When you see the film, you
will see exactly what I mean. I had to explain to myself some of the
elements of the game and I suddenly realized it was not only me, but
Roger Avary and this other writer Nicolas Boukhrief, that actually
we were dealing with a complete feminine world. And we decided to
create a feminine dimension of Silent Hill. It’s difficult to
explain, not revealing what happens in the game, but I have that
feeling that the way to explain Silent Hill is very feminine. You
will see, but actually when you look at the game, the heroes of the
game act like women even if they are guys.

They are caring about a child, they
are very sensitive and they are crying, so basically they are like
cardboard on feminine character. If you take off the appearance, you
would see that they are acting like women. And I can say something,
all the film is about motherhood. All the film is about motherhood,
about being a mother and being a daughter. All the film is about
that because I have the feeling after I played through the four
games of Silent Hill, it’s entirely about that. That’s one of my
decisions when I had to adapt Silent Hill is insist on that idea, on
that theme of motherhood. Let’s see what the fans will think about
that.

Did Roger Avary write the whole
script?

Oh, I wrote with Roger and Nicolas,
we wrote basically the whole story. Then Roger Avary worked a lot on
the dialogue. Of course he’s a great dialogist so that was the way
to work together.

Cheeseburger in Silent Hill?

[Laughs] I don’t know.

What other games do you play?

2 is my favorite. That’s my
favorite game of all time.

What others?

Oh, I’m a big fan of Metal Gear
Solid and Quake. I’m a big fan of RPG of course. Especially the
Squaresoft RPG, Final Fantasy. I like all types of games except
maybe race games.

What would a non-gamer get out of
the movie?

Like I said, we bring the story
very much in the foreground because it’s not only a movie for the
people who like the game. It’s also a movie for a large audience.
That’s one of the reasons also we decided to go to a completely
feminine cast, to create something very attractive and sexy in the
film, but in a subtle way. You will see but it’s definitely a movie
that people who don’t know the game can watch.

Favorite scene in the movie?

My favorite scene in that movie,
it’s difficult. I have some scenes that I like but in the film I
have to transcribe hell and purgatory. The Darkness is hell and of
course the foggy dimension is Purgatory. At one moment I have to
shoot something which looks like heaven. I think that’s my favorite
sequence in the film. It’s a small sequence, but that’s my way to
shoot heaven.

Thanks to Mike Pereira
for the transcript