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In an interview with fearnet, Resident Evil: Afterlife producer, Don Carmody causally announced the start date for filming of Silent Hill 2.

“Can you give us anything on Silent Hill 2?

Just that we are hoping to start it in late spring in Toronto.”

The 2nd film has been questioned as to if it will ever start filming, and if a new screenplay writer will be needed due to Roger Avary’s recent arrest for manslaughter (DUI leading to someones death). We will just have to wait for more info regarding the Silent Hill sequel.

There's no slowing down Aaron Sims, creature designer. His work in Clash of the Titans is still being seen in theaters and he recently wrapped The Apparition for Dark Castle and the anticipated Green Lantern starring Ryan Reynolds.

Sims is presently attached to Castlevania, the adaptation of the popular video game which is to be directed by Saw director James Wan. The artist tells us the project is currently on the back burner until Wan finishes the supernatural thriller Insidious.

"[Castlevania has] been trying to find the right financing for it," says Sims. "It's a big film with a giant fan base. They're not going through a big studio so it's about finding the right investors. James and I went to Romania and scouted locations." As for the creatures he worked on, "There's a Medusa and the vampires themselves had a unique quality to them that falls into James' style."

Today a curious picture emerged on Twitter. It features an advertisement in the Cannes Film Festival showing off the Kane & Lynch Movie.

This image reaffirms the long talked about casting for the titular protagonists. Bruce Willis will indeed be playing the homicidal Kane and Jamie Foxx will be portraying his psychopathic partner, Lynch.

Sony Pictures Animation has pre-emptively picked up rights to the Atari video game “Rollercoaster Tycoon.” Harald Zwart is spearheading the development of the big-screen adaptation as a possible directing project and will executive produce.

David Ronn and Jay Scherick, who penned the upcoming Kevin James comedy “The Zookeeper,” are attached to write what will be a live-action/CGI hybrid.

Atari’s Jim Wilson will exec produce with Nick Reed and Zwart.

Zwart directed Sony’s “The Karate Kid,” the upcoming remake of the 1980s classic that is produced by Will Smith and stars his son Jaden Smith.

In addition to working on “Zookeeper,” Ronn and Scherick are writing “The Smurfs” for Sony Animation. They also are in production on a pilot for ABC titled “Southern Discomfort,” starring Don Johnson and Mary Steenburgen.

An auction of screen rights for the PlayStation3 game Heavy Rain is coming to a close. I'm told a deal is near with Unique Features, the film shingle started by Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne after they exited New Line.

Using their own money, Shaye and Lynne posted top bid in an auction held by CAA on behalf of game developers Quantic Dream.

Unique has a first look deal with Warner Bros, but Shaye liked it enough to use his own money and not wait for approval to buy it. A deal should be sealed shortly.

Legendary Pictures has picked up rights to “Mass Effect,” the Electronic Arts-BioWare video game. Mark Protosevich, the scribe who wrote “I Am Legend” and worked on “Thor,” is in talks to pen the movie, which will be produced by Avi and Ari Arad as well as Legendary’s Thomas Tull and Jon Jashni.

The project is still in the early stages of development, though any game-to-screen undertaking would require a massive commitment. So far, humans vs. aliens movies have tended to be set on Earth, which makes those films easier to shoot while making them relatable for mass audiences.

Casey Hudson, who exec produced the game series, said BioWare always “thought ‘Mass Effect’ was perfectly suited to be a motion picture,” while Pat O’Brien of UTA-repped EA said the game was seen early on as having cross-over potential by EA Entertainment, whose mission is to take key EA titles and develop new ways to expand their audience.

“Effect” will fall under Legendary's co-production and co-financing agreement with Warner Bros., who will distribute the film worldwide.

BioWare co-founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk will serve as executive producers, as will Hudson.

20th Century Fox has Spanish helmer Daniel Benmayor in the crosshairs to direct Hitman 2. Will original star Timothy Olyphant return? That is unclear at this point, but Benmayor will make his Hollywood debut on the sequel to the film based on the Eidos videogame about a master assassin. Fox is planning a fall production start.

Benmayor, the Barcelona-born NYU grad created a following shooting Spanish commercials for Sony PlayStation, Renault, Mercedes, Heineken and Samsung. His feature debut come on the Spanish language action film Paintball, in which adrenaline junkies get dropped in a dense forest for a paintball match, and find that someone is using real ammo.

Adrian Askarieh, Alex Young and Chuck Gordon are producing, and Daniel Alter is exec producer. Daniel Casey has written the most recent draft, which Kyle Ward was originally hired to write. The sequel includes elements from the vidgame Hitman 5. Agent 47, is a beaten man and must build himself back psychologically and physically to reclaim his mantle as world’s most feared assassin.

I'm told there is an option on Olyphant, but it's unclear if he will shave his head and return as the killer.

Initially, Stunt Coordinator turned Director Simon Crane was attached to direct the upcoming KANE AND LYNCH based upon the video game by Eidos. The film is slated to start production this August.

According to my trusted proven source at Millennium, it wasn’t working out with Simon Crane so Crane and the studio have parted ways.

With the production start date inching closer, the hunt is on for a new director. The studio went out earlier this week to F. Gary Gray but he passed.

Now I get word that Wayne Kramer (CROSSING OVER) is engaging in talks to helm the project.

At press time, no deal has been made. It’s just talks.

A new poster and more images from Paul W.S. Anderson's Resident Evil: Afterlife have come online. Milla Jovovich also commented on the recent rumors that Sienna Guillory will be back as Jill Valentine in the film via her Twitter account today:

"So to answer many of your questions in one fell swoop, yes! The gorgeous and talented Sienna Guillory is back as Jill Valentine in RE4!!!"

Opening in 3D, 2D and IMAX 3D theaters on September 10, the fourth installment also stars Ali Larter, Kim Coates, Shawn Roberts, Sergio Peris-Mencheta, Spencer Locke, Boris Kodjoe and Wentworth Miller.

whatever happened to "Metal Gear Solid"? Some time ago it was reported that [David Hayter]'d written an adaptation for the game, a series in which he stars as the voice of Solid Snake. So I asked him: where is that script at now?

"They’ve been trying to work out a deal between [creator Hideo Kojima] and [Sony]," he said. "A couple of years ago, a producer friend of mine asked me if I would be interested in doing the adaptation. And I said ‘Of course. I know it pretty well.’ I think I can say without contradiction that I know it better than any screenwriter on the planet. I’ve said every word that Snake has said. So I felt well-qualified."

A script was written and submitted and the wheels started turning. So what happened? Hayter isn't completely sure; everything he knows, he's heard secondhand. I hesitate to report those details, other than to say that the plans derailed, at least in part, due to political reasons on Konami's (the game publisher) side.

Hayter added, "On top of that, I don’t believe they were ever able to successfully close a deal between Mr. Kojima and Sony. This is all just stuff I’ve heard."

What Hayer can speak to with authority is the work he did, the script he wrote. "I did come up with a pitch for the movie which I thought was pretty cool and I would still love to do. But there are far larger issues in terms of who’s going to get the rights to do it and what sort of involvement Mr. Kojima is going to have. All that needs to be worked out before I would ever come up."

Unfortunately for fans who are chomping at the bit to know more, there's a big difference between the script existing and Hayter being willing to talk about it. The initial movie plans might have fallen apart, but the possibility always exists that plans for a "Metal Gear Solid" movie will be revived. For that reason, Hayter is staying mum.

"I really want to spring some things on people," he explained. "Having been intimately involved with ‘Metal Gear,’ I would like to give people a story that will grab the fans. The fans will know the context that we’re talking about once they see the trailers. They’ll say ‘Oh my god, they’re going there.’ But they won’t quite know how the story is going to unfold or what some of the big surprises are going to be. And that’s really the only way to keep a movie [adaptation] interesting."

KIM Kardashian is in talks to replace Angelina Jolie in the Tomb Raider movie franchise.

According to Hollywood insiders, the curvy reality TV star is in the middle of negotiations to play video game beauty Lara Croft in a reboot of the film series.

“This will be something very different to Angelina’s Lara,” a source said.

“Kim is wanted to play a far more comic-strip version of Lara which would be shot in 3-D and aimed at a teen audience.”