Remember Resident Evil: The Final Chapter? Of course you do; Paul W.S. Anderson’s sixth and final installment in the lucrative series released only five months ago in the United States. But after grossing a franchise-high of $312 million at the global box office, the Powers That Be have officially ruled that there’s still life in the T-virus yet. So much so that Constantin Films and Screen Gems are purportedly in the early stages of constructing a six-film reboot for Resident Evil.
News emerged during the ongoing Cannes Film Festival, where Constantin’s head honcho Martin Moszkowicz revealed that Resident Evil won’t be spending too much time on the shelf after all. Still no word on whether Milla Jovovich and/or Paul W.S. Anderson are back on board – the latter seems less likely to return, given he’s already signed on to helm a big-screen adaptation of Monster Hunter, another of Capcom’s iconic video game franchises – but Deadline is reporting today that James Wan (Aquaman) has agreed to terms to produce this new take on Resident Evil, one which will be built on the foundations of Greg Russo’s script.
As the outlet goes on to point out, Russo and James Wan have crossed paths before, specifically while working on Mortal Kombat – incidentally, the iconic fighting franchise is also in the process of being repackaged for the silver screen. Resident Evil presents a different challenge altogether, but across six blockbuster features, the film franchise collected an eye-watering $1.2 billion worldwide, making it one of the most successful horror IPs in all of Hollywood – second only to the Alien series.
With that in mind, it was really a question of when, rather than if we’d see Capcom’s zombie flagship back in theaters. But what’re your thoughts on Wan and Russo’s appointment? Do let us know in the usual place.