Hope you like video game adaptations, because we have yet another one on the horizon. Sega’s The House of the Dead is set for the big screen, with Paul WS Anderson to write and direct.
Anderson will also serve as a producer, alongside his partner Jeremy Bolt. You may recognise Anderson and Bolt’s names. The duo have also worked on adaptations for the likes of Mortal Kombat (1995) and Monster Hunter (2020), as well as multiple Resident Evil films.
In addition, Sega’s Toru Nakahara will produce along with Story Kitchen’s Dmitri M Johnson, Mike Goldberg and Dan Jevons. Executive producer duties are being led by Timothy I. Stevenson.
“I’ve loved the video game since the ’90s,” Anderson told Deadline. “Back then I was a big player of video games in arcades, which is how I happened upon Mortal Kombat. And pretty much at the same time, I was also playing a lot of House of the Dead. It’s a title I’ve always loved.”
The director said the upcoming adaptation will be based on House of the Dead three. “It’s about a woman, Lisa Rogan, who’s attempting to rescue her father. 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 said.
“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… 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.”
Deadline noted Sega has been protective of its property, and the company brought in Toru Nakahara, Sega’s Head of Production for Movies/TV. Nakahara stated the success of the Sonic film adaptations had actually “changed the dynamic toward our transmedia policies” and since then the company has been “actively developing a lot of productions, looking at it as an initiative to expand the whole Sega brand”.
Production on the House of the Dead adaptation is currently planned to kick off by mid- to late-2025. Sega reshared the news with a post on social media, showing just two emojis: a house and a tombstone.
As for those aforementioned Sonic adaptations, the Keanu Reeves-starring Sonic the Hedgehog 3 film arrives this December.