Gans' 'Hill' piles up cast

Thesps flesh out vidgame adaptation

By ALISON JAMES

PARIS -- Sean Bean, Laurie Holden, Deborah Kara Unger, Kim Coates and Tanya Allen have joined the cast of Christophe Gans' horror pic "Silent Hill," which started shooting in Toronto on Monday with Radha Mitchell in the lead role.

Bigscreen adaptation of hit vidgame was recently acquired by TriStar Pictures in a negative pickup.

Mitchell stars as Rose, a woman searching for her lost daughter, played by "Tideland" child thesp Jodelle Ferland. Bean plays her husband in the chiller, scripted by Roger Avary. Holden is a police officer.

English-lingo pic, budgeted at $45 million-$50 million, is a Franco-Canadian co-production. Don Carmody, Victor Hadida, Andrew Mason and Samuel Hadida exec produce; Samuel Hadida produced Gans' hit French-lingo actioner "Brotherhood of the Wolf."

The Hadidas' French distribution company Metropolitan Filmexport will release the pic in Gaul. Alliance Atlantis will release in Canada. Metropolitan and Focus Features are jointly handling international sales.

"Christophe's a keen gamer, and he has wanted to adapt 'Silent Hill' ever since playing it to relax during the shoot of 'Brotherhood of the Wolf,' " said Samuel Hadida.

Hadida'sproduction company Davis Films acquired the rights to the vidgame 18 months ago, convincing rights holder Konami Corp. with a half-hour videotape in which Gans laid out how he would turn it into a movie. Project was developed in association with Konami.

Production team includes "Brotherhood" cinematographer Dan Laustsen and editors David Wu and Sebastien Prangere; "Hellboy" costume designer Wendy Partridge; and production designer Carole Spier ("League of Extraordinary Gentlemen"). Scary creatures were designed by Patrick Tatopoulos, whose credits include "I, Robot" and "Underworld."

"Silent Hill" is Samuel Hadida's second big-budget English-lingo pic this year after Tony Scott's Keira Knightley thriller "Domino," which will be released Stateside by New Line.