Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City ($38 Million Worldwide Box office)

The “Resident Evil” movie franchise has not ended after all.

Details such as the reboot director, stars, and how the reboot would fit into the franchise narrative are being kept under wraps. But Martin Moszkowicz, chairman of the board at Constantin Film, did confirm to Variety at the Cannes Film Festival that a reboot is in development at the giant German production company, which owns rights to the franchise and has produced all of its installments.

The franchise was set to end with this year’s “Resident Evil: The Final Chapter,” which grossed $312 million worldwide after its January release, including an eye-popping $160 million in China alone.  Sony helped sow the seeds of success by securing a release for “Resident Evil: Afterlife” and “Resident Evil: Extinction” in China.

Based on the Capcom video game, the series launched in 2002 with Paul W.S. Anderson directing, and Anderson, Jeremy Bolt, Bernd Eichinger, and Samuel Hadida producing the first of a six-movie series. The “Resident Evil” movie franchise has earned $1.2 billion worldwide to date, making it Europe’s most successful independent horror-genre movie franchise in history and the highest-grossing film series to be based on a video game.

“Resident Evil: The Final Chapter,” was again directed by Anderson and produced by Bolt with Hadida and Constantin’s Robert Kluizer, and exec produced by Moszkowicz.

Distributed by Screen Gems in the U.S., all six “Resident Evils” have starred Milla Jovovich. Anderson has written all six of the installments and directed four. His involvement on a reboot is open to question, however, as he prepares “Monster Hunter,” again inspired by a video game from Japan’s Capcom, which is set to be brought to the market in late 2017 or early 2018.

WyldeMan wrote:But given that the franchise was absolutely nothing like the games, there is a ton of room for expansion here.

More details are leaking out on the Resident Evil franchise reboot. James Wan has come aboard to produce the first of the Resident Evil reboots from a script by Greg Russo, and we’re hearing and it will have an entirely new cast. Russo wrote Mortal Kombat and Wan is known for producing the box office coups Lights Out, Annabelle and Saw, to name a few.

The Wan brand name is a strong one and should give a boost to the reboot. Also producing are Constantin Film and Michael Clear for Atomic Monster. It has no director aboard as yet, we’re told.

Wan and Russo worked previously together on Mortal Kombat, which is getting its own reboot through New Line. They also worked together on Robotech for Sony.

Wan, who is currently directing Aquaman for Warner Bros, will produce the Resident Evil reboot pic (the first of six, as reported by our sister publication Variety) for Constatin Films and Screen Gems. They have been in business for the previous wave of films in the franchise.

The most recent film, which was announced as the last one, came out this year. Resident Evil: The Final Chapter bowed in January and has since made $312.2M. Given that it made so much money in China ($160M+), it’s no wonder they aren’t stopping the IP based on the Capcom video game now.

Resident Evil: The Final Chapter was marketed throughout China by Leomus Pictures, and its smart campaign paid off with an enormous $94.3M debut, which ranked as the the biggest-ever three-day opening in China for an import. The Milla Jovovich-led epic zombie battle also became the No. 2 FSS launch for all films in the Middle Kingdom, behind only 2015’s Lost in Hong Kong.

The Resident Evil movie franchise itself has earned $1.2B worldwide to date and is also known as the highest-grossing film series based on a video game and the second-biggest horror franchise of all time behind the Alien movies.

The “Resident Evil” reboot has found its writer and director.

“47 Meters Down” director Johannes Roberts has been hired by Constantin Film to take the reins on the horror reboot, sources tell Variety.

The revival of the franchise has been a high priority for Constantin ever since May 2017, when the reboot was announced. The franchise has cumulatively earned $1.2 billion worldwide to date and is notable for being the highest-grossing film series based on a video game.

Based on the classic video game, the franchise followed Alice, played by Milla Jovovich, as she fights not only the zombies terrorizing Raccoon City after an experiment gone wrong, but the evil Umbrella Corp., which is the cause of the disastrous state. The most recent “Resident Evil” film bowed in 2016 and grossed $312 million, including $160 million in China alone.

The reboot is expected to start production in 2019 with a new cast.

Roberts has quickly seen his star rise after directing “47 Meters Down” to a domestic box office gross of $44 million on a $5 million budget. He is currently in production on the sequel, “47 Meters Down: The Next Chapter.” Other credits include “Strangers: Prey at Night” and “The Other Side of the Door.”

Constantin Film has set in motion a new adaptation to add to the ever-expanding Resident Evil movie franchise. Constantin and writer-director Johannes Roberts said Tuesday that have conceived an official origin story adaptation with faithful ties to Capcom’s classic survival horror games. This story is set in 1998 on a fateful night in Raccoon City.

Starring in the roles of the iconic game characters will be Maze Runner‘s Kaya Scodelario as Claire Redfield alongside Hannah John-Kamen (Ant-Man and the Wasp) as Jill Valentine, Robbie Amell (Upload) as Chris Redfield, Tom Hopper (The Umbrella Academy) as Albert Wesker, Avan Jogia (Zombieland: Double Tap) as Leon S. Kennedy, and Neal McDonough (Yellowstone) as William Birkin.

“With this movie, I really wanted to go back to the original first two games and re-create the terrifying visceral experience I had when I first played them whilst at the same time telling a grounded human story about a small dying American town that feels both relatable and relevant to today’s audiences, said Roberts, the filmmaker behind shark thriller 47 Meters Down and its sequel.

Franchise producer Robert Kulzer will produce again on behalf of Constantin with James Harris from Tea Shop Productions and Hartley Gorenstein.

Said Kulzer, “After a dozen games, six live-action movies and hundreds of pages of fan fiction, we felt compelled to return to the year 1998, to explore the secrets hidden in the walls of the Spenser Mansion and Raccoon City.

Sony Pictures’ Screen Gems will once distribute the film domestically, with Constantin handling German-speaking territories, Elevation distributing in Canada, Metropolitan in France, and Sony Pictures Releasing International handling much of the remaining territories.

Constantin Film’s CEO Martin Moszkowicz and Victor Hadida of Davis Film will serve as executive producers. Alex Westmore and Colin Scully of Constantin Film are overseeing the project.

Paul W.S. Anderson wrote and directed the previous six films, which were led by Milla Jovovich and made a combined $1.2 billion at the worldwide box office. It’s among the highest-grossing film series ever based on a video game. Deadline recently broke the news of a Resident Evil series adaptation, which is set up at Netflix.

McDonough recently wrapped the western/thriller Red Stone, for which he is executive producing and starring in and is currently shooting Apex opposite Bruce Willis for director Edward Drake. He will also star int he sci-fi feature Monsters of Man, which will be released worldwide in December. His additional credits include Amazon’s The Warrant, Paramount’s hit feature Sonic the Hedgehog and Netflix’s Game Over, Man!  On the TV side, he can be seen in Yellowstone, Altered Carbon and the Robert Zemeckis series Project Blue Book.

Constantin’s hugely anticipated reboot of the Resident Evil film franchise is quickly taking shape, and we couldn’t be more excited about it.

The video game adaptation, which has been in the works for a while now, will hew much closer to the source material than Paul W.S. Anderson’s efforts did and will finally touch down in theaters on Labor Day weekend. Unfortunately, we’re still a ways out from September, but it at least looks as if the lid is about to be peeled back on the project.

A trailer continues to elude us, and we still haven’t even seen an official photo, but the first poster dropped the other week and now, we have the title for the movie, with IGN revealing that it’ll be called Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City.

Furthermore, the outlet also notes that the film will adapt the first two games in Capcom’s hit series, which we had already assumed given the list of characters who’ll appear, with folks like Chris and Claire Redfield, Jill Valentine, and Leon S. Kennedy all confirmed to be showing up. Not only that, but both the mansion from Resident Evil and the city itself as well as the police station from the first sequel will be seen, too.

Indeed, all signs point to a pretty faithful adaptation of the source material and while the jury is still out on whether or not it’ll be able to stand apart from the countless terrible video game movies that have graced our screens in recent years, the signs are definitely promising right now.

Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City hits theaters on September 3rd, 2021.

Tyger wrote:“hugely anticipated” Surely, they must be joking.

Rusty wrote:Does anybody watch these? I watched the very first movie, and then one more. Not sure which one it was though.

Are they worth lining up and doing a binge?