House of the Dead to Become a Film Helmed by Resident Evil Director

House of the Dead is being adapted for film – and will be written and directed by none other than Paul WS Anderson, known for his work on the Resident Evil films.

The upcoming film will be based on House of the Dead III, the 2002 arcade game. Anderson recently said he has been a fan of the series since the 1990s and particularly enjoyed arcade games, which is how he found Mortal Kombat. His 1995 adaptation of the Mortal Kombat games was his second director’s job, after 1994’s Shopping.

House of the Dead plot 

The third House of the Dead game was “hyper-immersive” and “kinetic”, in Anderson’s words.

The plot centered around Lisa Rogan trying to rescue her father. Daniel Rogan, another character, is the son of the man who caused a mutant outbreak and must deal with his father’s actions.

Anderson has often worked with producer Jeremy Bolt, who co-founded Impact Pictures, and the pair will work together on House of the Dead. Bolt says the creatures in the abandoned research facility are “keenly intelligent” and differ from traditional zombies that “come at you slowly lumbering”. The character Dr. Curien controls the creatures with chainsaws embedded into their limbs.

The characters, says Anderson, “have 90 minutes to basically escape the most extreme haunted house you’ve ever been in.” A film with simple rules and luck involved – sounds like a game of オンラインルーレット.

No actors have been announced yet, so we don’t yet know who will play Lisa Rogan, Daniel Rogan, or Dr. Curien.

When is production starting? 

Eurogamer reported that production on the film will start in mid- to late-2025, referencing a tweet from Sega.

Will everyone need to have played the games to understand what’s going on? 

Anderson told Deadline, “This is a full-on terror ride.” He intends to make a movie that drags “the audience straight into the action.”

Anderson says, “Everyone’s going to be on the same page.” He has no intention of involving “a whole bunch of back story that might exclude people who know nothing about House of the Dead”.

Sega adaptations 

Sega was initially “skeptical” about getting involved in films, according to their head of production in movies and TV, Toru Nakahara, who will be one of the producers of the film. Nakahara told Deadline that Sega had the idea that Hollywood were “sharks” and were going to rip them off. After Sega worked with Paramount on the Sonic film, they became more open to film adaptations. Nakahara said, “since then we’ve been actively developing a lot of productions, looking at it as an initiative to expand the whole Sega brand.”

Sega’s adaptations include the upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog 3, which will be released this December. Among the cast is Keanu Reeves (The Matrix, John Wick), who will voice Sonic’s nemesis, Shadow. The music in the trailer referenced the classic tunes ‘Green Hill Zone’ and ‘Live & Learn’, from Sonic Adventure 2.

Nakahara called Anderson and Bolt “legends” of zombie movies with a “rare understanding” of video game adaptations.

Anderson’s history with Resident Evil

Anderson directed, wrote, and produced 2002’s Resident Evil film, and wrote and produced Resident Evil: Apocalypse and Extinction (2004 and 2007).

He was back in the director’s chair (as well as writing and producing) for Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010), Retribution (2012) and The Final Chapter (2016).

That last film, Final Chapter, was the most highly rated among film critics. Horror movies don’t tend to score highly with critics, but some publications gave the film high scores. The Film Stage praised Anderson’s “economic storytelling” and “boyish imagination”, and Entertainment Weekly said, “The climax makes for a satisfying conclusion to the franchise”.

Judging by Metacritic’s scores, viewers rated the film slightly higher than critics, with one fan saying, “OMG the most shocking ending ever seen.”

Mortal Kombat was Anderson’s most highly rated film. Los Angeles Times described the movie as “A martial arts action-adventure with wondrous special effects and witty production design”, while Variety praised the “exquisitely choreographed action and ironic visual and verbal counterpoint.”

Has Anderson got any other films in the works? 

Anderson’s In the Lost Lands will be released in 2025. The film is based on a short story by George R. R. Martin, writer of the beloved A Game of Thrones / A Song of Ice and Thunder series. Anderson wrote the screenplay with Constantin Werner, another writer-director-producer. Werner’s production credits include the Puma series, which was directed by martial arts legend Donnie Yen.