There seems to be a minor bidding war going on in Hollywood right now, where the market is literally being vacuumed clean for video game brands to adapt for movies. Nothing is too old, obscure, or small, as everything is of interest. And therefore, it's not entirely surprising that Sega's old light gun game The House of the Dead is next in line.
We have previously reported on the project, which is led by Paul W.S. Anderson (who previously made Mortal Kombat in 1995 and the Resident Evil films with Milla Jovovich), and now Deadline writes that the lead role has been cast. It will be a actress who, fittingly, knows a lot about both zombies and game adaptations, namely Isabela Merced. She plays Dina in The Last of Us: Season 2, and she most recently appeared in both Superman and Peacemaker: Season 2 playing Hawkgirl.
The House of the Dead debuted in Japanese arcades in 1997 and offered frenetic zombie shooting, with branching paths, big bosses, and lots of secrets. It also got a home version for the Sega Saturn. Just a year later, The House of the Dead 2 was released, which got an arcade-perfect edition for the Dreamcast. Since then, more games have been released, but the era of light guns faded after 2000, and The House of the Dead has slowly faded into obscurity.
The House of the Dead has been made into a movie twice before, which Sega probably doesn't want us to talk about too much. The first film was made in 2003 by the often harshly criticised Uwe Boll, and the following year Michael Hurst delivered a sequel that maintained the same extremely low standard.
The fact that Sega is now pushing for a screen adaptation may indicate that they are keen to revive the brand, and as we know, they are working on new instalments in several other classic game series. Either way, the film seems to be in good hands and hopefully more roles will be cast and production get underway in the near future.
<bild>A remake of the first game was launched in 2022.</bild>