Isabela Merced to Enter Paul W.S. Anderson’s ‘House of the Dead’ Adaptation

Isabela Merced (“The Last of Us”, Alien Romulus), has been cast in a new film adaptation of the hit Sega video game series, House of the Dead, reports Deadline today.

The film hails from Paul W.S. Anderson (Event Horizon). Anderson is no stranger to adapting popular zombie video games, having done so with the 2002 Resident Evil that kicked off a six-film series.

For those who have never been, House of the Dead is a first-person shooter that released in 1997. Players step into the unfortunate shoes of AMS agents, a government agency tasked with taking down organizations that threaten the world. The agents are tasked with investigating an abandoned mansion, only to stumbled across a horde of genetically engineered undead.

Anderson will produce alongside his Resident Evil partner Jeremy Bolt, Sega’s Toru Nakahara (Sonic the Hedgehog) and Story Kitchen’s Dmitri M. Johnson (“Tomb Raider” TV series), Michael Lawrence Goldberg and Timothy I. Stevenson. Isabela Merced will be executive-producing.

Said Anderson, “The House of the Dead is a game I have loved for many years, and I’m beyond thrilled to be bringing this to the big screen with such an exciting talent as Isabela at its heart. We envisage this as the start of a tentpole franchise which can explore the rich world and lore that SEGA has created over a whole series of films.”

It sounds as if this is a “top priority” for Sega, with the intent to make the film as immersive as possible and with a story that plays out in real-time but with a “fresh take” on the franchise.

That sounds a lot like Uwe Boll’s dubious 2003 adaptation of House of the Dead, which featured various first-person shots ripped straight out of the games. We’ll see if Anderson takes a similar approach.

Rocket Science will launch international sales at next week’s European Film Market (EFM).