There must be some level of irony around a video game movie about a deadly pandemic wrapping up production amid a real-life pandemic. But the context in which the new Resident Evil film has been filming is certainly not intentional, as the Johannes Roberts-helmed reboot is Sony and Constantin Film’s newest expansion of a film franchise that began with Paul W.S. Anderson’s 2002 film. Anderson would direct or co-write the next five films in the series, but he steps away from the franchise completely with the latest Resident Evil movie, which has no connections to the previous films and is on track to be released theatrically in 2021.
The Resident Evil reboot directed by Johannes Roberts’ (47 Meters Down, The Strangers: Prey at Night) for Constantin Film has officially wrapped filming this week, per a Sony announcement on Twitter.
That’s a wrap in Raccoon City. ?
diREcted by Johannes Roberts pic.twitter.com/q5mmQxjFQo— Sony Pictures (@SonyPictures) December 28, 2020
The film is set to be an “origin story adaptation” of the popular Capcom video game franchise, taking place in Raccoon City in 1998. It is planned to kick off “a new universe inspired by storylines and characters from Capcom’s classic Resident Evil games.”
“With this movie, I really wanted to go back to the original first two games and recreate 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 in a statement shared by Deadline.
Notably, the film’s logo is very similar to those of the recent remakes of the Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3 video games, which were a blend of moody horror and tense action, unlike the bombastic Anderson movies. Perhaps Roberts, whose skill set is very much in the horror realm, might be approaching the film with that genre in mind versus the action-forward approach the Anderson films are famous for.
The cast for the Resident Evil reboot includes Kaya Scodelario (Crawl) 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.
The Resident Evil reboot is set to hit theaters in 2021.
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