After six post-apocalyptic thrillers in only 10 years, writer-director Paul W.S. Anderson brought the Resident Evil series to its conclusion with The Final Chapter, an enjoyable but also somewhat underwhelming finale to what was overall, one of the more enjoyable action series of the past decade.
That was back in 2016, and ever since, Constantin Films has been hard at work putting together a big-screen revival of Resident Evil, one which will come to theaters through James Wan (The Conjuring, Aquaman) and Mortal Kombat screenwriter Greg Russo. Not much has been revealed about the studio’s plans just yet, but one thing we can tell you is that Anderson won’t be involved, as he’s already moved onto his follow-up gig: Monster Hunter.
In his place, Constantin has selected 47 Meters Down director Johannes Roberts to get behind the camera and pen the script. With production getting ready to begin at some point next year, the search is now on for a new cast, reports Variety, indicating that we shouldn’t expect to see Milla Jovovich return as Alice.
Still, with the project said to be a high priority for Constantin Film, we imagine we’ll be hearing more shortly on which talent they have their eye on to bring the movie to life. And hopefully, some plot details will come our way soon as well.
In the meantime, let’s revisit what Russo said just the other week, when he explained that the reboot will go back to the horror roots of the franchise.
“Obviously I’m a huge fan of the franchise so to work on that was a lot of fun. For me it was very clear cut that I wanted to go back and make it scary again like a horror film in terms of the classic James Wan style so that was the pitch, going back and looking what made the games scary in the first place so yea Resident Evil 7 was a bit of a touchstone for my draft.”
“Not to shame the original film franchise that was made, I think that did very well. But I always considered the franchise to be horror at the forefront and action as a secondary feature.”
Obviously, this is good to hear. Anderson’s efforts were enjoyable, sure, but they didn’t exactly have a lot of horror in them. It was easy to get lost in the over the top ass kicking and action that they served up, but a few more scares would’ve been welcome – especially in the later installments.
With James Wan on board to produce the reboot though, it certainly sounds like we’ll be getting a more horror oriented slant on Resident Evil and Roberts is a solid choice for director. As such, we’re hopeful that the property will continue to flourish on the big screen even with a new coat of paint on it and as soon as we learn more, we’ll be sure to let you know.