Friday, March 29, 2024

Latest Posts

‘Resident Evil’ Reboot Heads To The Series Horror Roots

'Resident Evil 2'
Source: Capcom

It has been nearly two decades since the first Resident Evil film from director Paul W.S. Anderson hit theaters back in 2002. While the film opened to mixed receptions, Resident Evil would go on to become a billion-dollar franchise that spawned five additional films (bringing the total to six films in the series between 2002-2017) starring Anderson’s wife, actress Milla Jovovich. Each subsequent sequel saw diminishing returns and barely resembled the classic video game franchise they were loosely based on.

Now the franchise is set to see a hard reboot as that chapter of the Resident Evil brand comes to a close and an all-new film adaptation from director Johannes Roberts (47 Meters Down) who is promising fans that we will finally see films that resemble the games they are based on in both style and tone. Roberts says the new film will be “scary as hell.”

The all-new Resident Evil movie, which is officially titled Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City, is taking most of its cues from the early games in the long-running survival horror video game series. At a recent press event, director Johannes Roberts discussed plans for the film in more detail and explained that he planned to bring the games to life in a way that really captured their grim tone.

The big thing for me on this movie is tone. The thing that I loved with the games was they were just scary as hell, and that is very much what I wanted, that atmosphere. It’s raining constantly, it’s dark, it’s creepy, Raccoon City is this rotten character. I wanted to put that in and mix it with the fun side, especially with the first game’s around-the-corner style of storytelling. We had a lot of fun, down to the fixed-angle-playing that the first game had when we’re in the Spencer Mansion.

The film is being planned as a larger-scale film in a small-scale setting, evenly split between the events taking place in the Raccoon City Police Station and at the Spencer Mansion on the outskirts of the city. These are both key locations from the first two games in the series that fans will undoubtedly be excited to see fully realized in live-action.

'Resident Evil 2'
Source: Capcom

These locations are being painstakingly recreated to capture the atmospheric experience of the survival horror games. Johannes Roberts specifically cites the recent 2019 remake of the second game in the series, Resident Evil 2, as a major inspiration for his new Resident Evil film.

[The remake of the second game] was such a wonderful cinematic experience with the tone, the constant dark, rain, the aspect of the game and I just took that and went yeah, that’s the world I want to work in. We very much took the tone of the remake of the second game and made that our template for this movie.

Another area that this reboot is tackling is the cast of characters. The previous Resident Evil films mostly followed characters that were created for the films with characters from the games largely sidelined and sprinkled into the story in minor cameo roles. As Roberts’ new adaptation is playing things closer to the source material, fans will be happy to hear that their favorite game characters will now be front and center.

The film will focus on Chris Redfield (Robbie Amell) and his sister Claire (Kaya Scodelario), Chris’s partner Jill Valentine (Hannah John-Kamen), Albert Wesker (Tom Hopper), Leon S. Kennedy (Avan Jogia), and the mysterious Ada Wong (Lily Gao); all characters featured prominently in the first two games of the series.

Milla Jovovich in 'Resident Evil'
Source: Sony

Perhaps most importantly, Roberts is making sure that his new film stands apart from the film series that came before it. While he has said he appreciates what Anderson and Jovovich did with their films, he was excited to give the Resident Evil series a fresh start that feels completely new and different.

It’s a whole separate origin story that’s based in the roots of the game and in the world of horror. I fell in love with Milla Jovovich, that first movie, it’s great fun… but this was a real pleasure to be given the reins to a new franchise, hopefully, that is its own thing. I’d never seen the terror and the atmosphere of the games, what I felt when I was playing those games or watching behind people’s shoulders playing the games. I’d never felt that onscreen, and this is something I wanted to tell.

Johannes Roberts’ Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City is currently set for theatrical release on September 3, 2021. There will also be an all-new unrelated Resident Evil television series heading to Netflix in the not too distant future.

Are you excited to see the Resident Evil brand get a do-over with a clean slate? Or would you prefer to see the continued adventures of Mill Jovovich’s character Alice? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below and be sure to stick around Geek Anything for more Resident Evil updates!

Latest Posts

spot_imgspot_img

Don't Miss