Image: Capcom
Four movie studios are in a bidding war over an all-new Resident Evil movie.
A new Resident Evil game adaptation is in the works and this time, everyone wants in on it. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the Resident Evil movie franchise is getting rebooted yet again, with Barbarian director Zach Cregger onboard to write and direct the new film.
The project is reportedly the subject of an intense bidding war, as multiple studios fight it out to get their hands on the project.
Resident Evil movie franchise gets another reboot, studios fight for it
Zach Cregger, director of the wickedly twisty 2022 horror-thriller movie Barbarian, is now looking to write and direct a movie based on Capcom’s horror-survival game franchise Resident Evil. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the movie will be a “revamp” that will take Resident Evil to its horror roots and “be more faithful to the initial games.”
Given the critical acclaim of Cregger’s previous movie Barbarian, and the established IP of Resident Evil, four movie studios are reportedly fighting in a bidding war to distribute the upcoming adaptation. Among them are Warner Bros. Pictures and Netflix, according to the outlet. Constantin Film will return to produce the movie along with PlayStation Productions, the latter of which has never produced a Resident Evil movie before.
John Wick: Chapter 4 and Army of the Dead writer Shay Hatten will co-write the movie with Cregger. If all goes according to the plan, this will be the eighth Resident Evil movie adaptation to date. Six of these movies starred Milla Jovovich, before a reboot titled Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City was released in 2021. The latter proved to be a financial and critical failure, paving the way for a second reboot.
That’s not all, as Netflix also released a live-action series based on the Resident Evil property in 2022. However, the series was derided by fans, proved to be a critical failure, and was ultimately cancelled within a month of its release.
It’s worth noting that in 2023, a grant of CA$2 million was given from the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation to help with the production of a mystery film called Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles, which was set to film in Greater Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. In the years since, the movie seems to have either fallen through or been reworked into Cregger’s new Resident Evil project.
Meanwhile, Capcom is already hard at work on the next Resident Evil game.
