Resident Evil Films - Development

Development

In January 1997, Constantin Film acquired the rights to the Resident Evil franchise with Alan B. McElroy writing the script. By 2001, Columbia TriStar was in final negotiations to acquire North American distribution rights to Resident Evil and budgeted the movie at $40 million.

George A. Romero was hired by Sony and Capcom to direct and write Resident Evil. However, his script was later disapproved and he was ultimately dropped from the movie. Capcom producer Yoshiki Okamoto explained to the editors of Electronic Gaming Monthly that "Romero's script wasn't good, so Romero was fired".

Hired by Sony, Paul W. S. Anderson wrote a screenplay, which was ultimately favored over Romero's. In late 2000, Anderson was announced as director and writer, and Resident Evil re-entered pre-production stages. Anderson stated the film would not include any tie-ins with the video game series as "under-performing movie tie-ins are too common and Resident Evil, of all games, deserved a good celluloid representation". Milla Jovovich was cast as protagonist Alice in 2001, a character she plays for a further four films.

A second film began production in 2003 after the first was a success. Anderson was confirmed to write the script but not confirmed to return as a director, due to him working on Alien vs. Predator. As with the previous installment, Constantin provided financing for the film.

In November 2005, Screen Gems gained the rights for the third film in the franchise, which was then named Resident Evil: Afterlife. It was announced Anderson would again return as a writer. Filming took place in Mexico and the movie was released September 21, 2007 as Resident Evil: Extinction.

Before the third installment had been released, Constantin prepared to release a fourth film in the franchise. Originally set in Japan, the film was soon confirmed to be released to theatres late 2010. Resident Evil: Afterlife was filmed in 3D with the Fusion Camera System developed by James Cameron and Vince Pace for their 2009 film Avatar. The film had a $60 million budget, the biggest budget in the Resident Evil franchise at the time.

A fifth film in the franchise, entitled Resident Evil: Retribution, was released internationally on September 14, 2012. Filming took place in Toronto, Ontario from mid-October to December 23, 2011, marking the third time the franchise has filmed in Toronto. Paul W. S. Anderson returned as writer and director, Glen McPherson serves as director of photography and Kevin Phipps as production designer.

Jovovich was confirmed, as well as Guillory, reprising her role as Jill Valentine. Boris Kodjoe returned as Luther. Colin Salmon who played One and Michelle Rodriguez who played Rain Ocampo in the first film returned. Oded Fehr who portrayed Carlos Olivera in the second and third film returned for the film. Three new characters from the games appeared together with the returning cast: Johann Urb was cast as Leon S. Kennedy and Kevin Durand as Barry Burton with Li Bingbing portraying Ada Wong.

Originally, Anderson planned to film Retribution and a sixth installment back-to-back, but he later decided to focus on just the fifth film. In the same interview, Anderson stated that if Retribution does well financially, then a sixth film would be developed and it will be the finale of the series. Milla Jovovich revealed that she is planning to star in a sixth and final installment of the franchise which will close out the series' storyline. Speaking with Variety, Rory Bruer, the distribution head of Sony, has confirmed that a sixth film would be made, with Milla Jovovich as the star. On March 4, it was announced that a sixth installment is scheduled for a release of September 12, 2014. On March 13, 2013, Anderson has been confirmed to direct the film.

In an interview with Forbes, producer Samuel Hadida stated that a sixth and seventh Resident Evil are planned and a reboot of the series is possible. "It will go another one, another two, and then I’m sure it will be rebooted." says Hadida. "Spider-Man did. Why not Resident Evil? You can come back to the original idea, the start of everything. You can take out characters. You can evolve. You can live with this world very easily. You know, characters were dead and they are still here.