Untitled Live Action Fatal Frame Film

Since 2002, there have been announcements and rumours about Fatal Frame adaptations for English audiences. As yet, none of these projects have reached fruition.

2003 DreamWorks Movie

Status: Cancelled

In May 2002, Tecmo announced via press release that they were negotiating with DreamWorks to create a movie based on Fatal Frame. A year later, they announced that the movie was in pre-production; screenwriters Robert Fyvolent and Mark R. Brinker had been hired to write the screenplay, and shooting would begin in 2004. John Rogers, screenwriter for The Core, was slated to be the producer. In October 2003, a further press release stated that production was being fast-tracked, and Steven Spielberg had taken a personal interest in the project. John Rogers was quoted as saying that the story would remain set in Japan.

Following this announcement, there was no further official information about the status of the movie. No director or cast were ever announced - it was rumoured that actress Courtney Webb had been cast as Miku, though this rumour was later debunked by her talent agency and probably resulted from her involvement in the movie adaptation of Forbidden Siren, a different PS2 horror game. In late 2004, John Rogers mentioned on his personal blog that he had been meeting with directors for the movie, and in February 2005 he said he would be meeting with the director and polishing the script in between working on other projects. At around the same time, a tip submitted to movie rumours site Movies Online said the movie would be released in November 2005.

After this, nothing more was heard. Due to the lack of news, this project can be considered defunct.

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  TPM Vol 20 Page 2

2014 Media Mix Announcement

Status: In development, progress unknown

In April 2014, a Famitsu article announced that a new Fatal Frame game was in development, along with a novel, Japanese movie and manga. The article also stated that a Hollywood movie would be undertaken later.

On 17 July 2014, during a live press event broadcast on Niconico, producer and director Samuel Hadida appeared via video link to announce that he was working on the movie adaptation. His message was as follows:

Hello, everyone! My name is Samuel Hadida, a producer of the Resident Evil franchise that was a very big success all over the world. I am not with you here tonight, but I wanted to congratulate you on this Fatal Frame premiere, and I wish that this media mix event will be a huge success. I am very happy to be part of the Fatal Frame team, and very excited to produce very soon what we can call the Hollywood version of Fatal Frame. As you can see, I'm very familiar with the video game world, and as a producer, we have achieved a big success by combining the artistic world of the video game world and the cinematic experience of Resident Evil or Silent Hill, another franchise that we produce. So my condition is to produce a movie so scary that never anybody has imagined, and to bring to the best of the fan a new cinematic experience that will go beyond the video game experience. So we have everything into this universe - a great story, vivid character, and an artistic element that will dip you into this world of Fatal Frame that I love very much. Kadokawa Horror has established a brand name of the Japanese horror movies that I'm a big fan [of] too, and that's why I'm looking forward to see their version of Fatal Frame. But nevertheless, I always love challenges, and I promise I will do my best effort to produce an even better version. So fans, wait for it! You will not be disappointed.

As the rest of the media mix went ahead, no further news emerged about the Hollywood version, except a brief allusion in a November 2015 interview with Makoto Shibata, in which he mentioned interacting with the staff working on the movie.

Samuel Hadida died on 26 November 2018, and many fans assumed his death meant the end of the project, but in January 2020, writer and director Christophe Gans announced that he was working on a Fatal Frame adaptation with Victor Hadida, Samuel's brother.

Shortly after this interview, the global coronavirus pandemic caused massive disruption to the entertainment industry, with films in all stages of production delayed or cancelled. Nevertheless, in October 2021, Keisuke Kikuchi, producer of the Fatal Frame Series, mentioned in an interview with 4gamer that the project was ongoing, and in June 2022 Christophe Gans mentioned in an interview that the script had been supervised by Tecmo representatives and was now ready, and that he was aiming for a 2024 release.

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