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Stand Under My Umbrella: James Wan Is Already Working On A 'Resident Evil' Reboot Series

There are already ambitious plans to open up the hive once more and start from scratch.

By Tom ChapmanPublished 6 years ago 3 min read
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'Resident Evil' [Credit: Screen Gems]

For those who already accuse Hollywood of running out of ideas — especially in the horror stakes — you had better turn back now. We might have waited some 30 years for Pennywise to bring his circus of horrors to town, and Danny McBride is currently resurrecting Michael Myers, but to reboot a series when the final film hasn't even made home-release yet is quite a feat.

The dust has barely settled on the #zombie wasteland of #PaulWSAnderson's Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, but there are already ambitious plans to open up the hive once more and start from scratch.

Evil Never Dies

Speaking to Variety at the Cannes film festival, Constantin Film chairman Martin Moszkowicz revealed that the company is eying a fresh approach to the bullet-riddled blockbuster about an apocalyptic biohazard. Once again, Constantin will use #Cacpom's game series as their influence. The German behemoth was behind the production of all six films and currently own the rights to any future installments.

Hot off the heels of the announcement, Deadline revealed that horror aficionado James Wan will produce the first of six planned films and adapt a script by Greg Russo. Although Wan will be known by many as the man behind DC's Aquaman, his gory credentials include Saw, Dead Silence, and The Conjuring. Russo's work may not be as lucrative, however, he has written the script for the upcoming Mortal Kombat.

Given that the previous iteration of the franchise shuffled from beyond the grave with a whopping $1.2 billion, six films may not be too much of an ambitious project. However, if the recent Power Rangers debacle showed us anything, don't count your eggs before they've hatched. Deadline also reports that we will have a wholly new cast (as expected), but that the project is yet to find a director. I did love the wisecracking Project Alice and seeing #MillaJovovich flash her tatas on our screens, but after 15 years, the corpse was starting to smell

Early 2017 brought the final #ResidentEvil installment — ironically dubbed The Final Chapter — and while it still had the beating heart of its predecessors, it divided critics on its popularity. A far cry from the worst entry in the series, The Final Chapter was a somewhat lackluster affair that gave us more questions than answers.

The Resident Evil films certainly carved themselves a niche for popcorn horror, but only time will tell if the reboot is planning a more serious approach or if it will stick to what the original films did best. If anyone has seen the cheese-laden cinematic opening to 1996's first Resident Evil game, you will know exactly why Anderson took a lighter approach to the hordes of ravenous biters.

Who The F*ck Is Alice?

Unlike the first film, the original game focused on the pairing of Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine — two fan-favorite characters who were tragically cast aside in the films. Other main characters like Leon Kennedy and Ada Wong were also sidelined in favor of Alice ruling the roost over the six-film arc. Perhaps the only character who got the justice they deserved was the bleach-blonde Albert Wesker as the de facto villain. Who knows where the reboots will take us, and while Alice probably won't be the focus this time around, expect there to at least be a nod to the hardened heroine.

As the most successful game-to-film franchise ever, Resident Evil has already overcome its first hurdle and has a legion of adoring fans who are hungry for more flesh. Anderson's 2002 film bravely took the bare bones of the game series and reinvented it for his own world. Introducing a brand new character in Jovovich's Alice, Anderson's franchise grew more ambitious alongside Capcom's series of the same name. With the games criticized for being too cinematic and the films for barely referencing the games, a reboot could certainly be the cure to the T-virus.

Nuking the franchise back to the start of Raccoon City, will we finally get an atmospheric horror from the creaking walls of the Spencer Mansion, or will it be another CGI-crammed gorefest with one-liners that even The Expendables would cringe at?

(Source: Variety/Deadline)

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About the Creator

Tom Chapman

Tom is a Manchester-based writer with square eyes and the love of a good pun. Raised on a diet of Jurassic Park, this ’90s boy has VHS flowing in his blood. No topic is too big for this freelancer by day, crime-fighting vigilante by night.

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