Sony Pictures is releasing a reboot of the Resident Evil series after 25 years and six successful films, but some are saying that this is the most game-accurate adaptation yet.
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City is the seventh live-action film in the franchise, giving fans a look at the origins of the Umbrella Corp story as it relates to the once-thriving Raccoon City.
“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,” writer and director Johannes Roberts told Deadline in October of last year.
Most notably, Welcome to Raccoon City will not star Milla Jovovich who helped make the first six films as big as they were from 2002 to 2017. Roberts says that this reboot will be “a totally separate story” that focuses more on what the original game was all about.
“I fell in love with Milla Jovovich, that first film is a lot of fun… but it was a real pleasure to get the reins of a new franchise. I had never seen the horror and atmosphere of the games [in the movies],” Roberts continued. “I never felt it on the screen, and this is something I wanted to tell you about.”
The new movie stars Maze Runner’s Kaya Scodelario, The Flash’s Robbie Amell, and Brave New World’s Hannah John-Kamen.
Welcome to Raccoon City releases in the U.S. tomorrow (November 24), but only in theaters. After a crazy couple of years during this pandemic, we’ve been spoiled in regards to on-demand movies coming straight to our living rooms on day one, but not so much anymore.
Unfortunately (I say as a total introvert), most theaters have opened back up and movies are hitting the big screen before coming to on-demand, but we can count on the traditional cycle of 45 days or so for this one to hit the streaming services. With it being a Sony Pictures production, our guess is that it won’t be plagued by channel-exclusivity (as we’d see with HBO or Paramount) and will most likely come to the same services that currently offer the other Resident Evil movies (Amazon Prime Video, Walmart’s Vudu, AppleTV+, Redbox, Hulu). But we’ll have to wait!
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