Resident Evil reboot film announces official title
Sony Pictures has finally revealed the title for the upcoming Resident Evil live-action reboot based on Capcom’s hugely popular video games.
The title for the film directed by Johannes Roberts will officially be called Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City.
Sony Pictures posted an image of the ominous welcome sign bearing the logo of the infamous Umbrella Corporation on their Twitter account on Monday (Mar. 22) with the caption, "Enjoy your stay."
Enjoy your stay. @ResidentEvil: #WelcomeToRaccoonCity is only in theaters September 3. pic.twitter.com/DZn28klsJB
— Sony Pictures (@SonyPictures) March 22, 2021
Set in the year 1998, Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City is set to be an official origin story to Capcom’s long-running survival horror video game franchise.
The film takes place on the infamous night in Raccoon City after the Umbrella Corporation unleashed a legion of infected zombies and the events that followed.
The remake adapts the first two original Resident Evil games and features fan favorite characters. Both the Spencer mansion from Resident Evil 1 and the city itself and police station from Resident Evil 2 will be present in the movie.
The upcoming film stars Kaya Scodelario (The Maze Runner) as Claire Redfield, Hannah John-Kamen (Ant-Man and the Wasp) as Jill Valentine, Robbie Amell (Upload) as Chris Redfield, Tom Hopper (The Umnbrella Academy) as Albert Wesker, Avan Jogia (Zombieland: Double Tap) as Leon S. Kennedy, Neal McDonough (DC’s Legends of Tomorrow) as William Birkin, and Lily Gao (The Handmaid’s Tale) as Ada Wong. Among the main characters from the video games, only Leon S. Kennedy wasn’t featured in Sony’s first Resident Evil films.
Chad Rook (The Flash), Donal Logue (Sons of Anarchy), and Marina Mazepa have been cast in the roles of Richard Aiken, Chief Brian Irons, and Lisa Trevor, respectively, marking the live-action debuts for the characters.
The reboot, which wrapped filming in December 2020, is set to debut this September exclusively in theatres. The new live-action film comes five years after the studio concluded their blockbuster film series staring Milla Jovovich. The new film is completely unrelated to the franchise previously directed by Paul W.S. Anderson.
The film is one of several Resident Evil projects currently in the works. Avid fans of the horror/action video game franchise, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, can also look forward to a Resident Evil live-action television series, and the Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness animated series which are both being developed by Netflix.
The title was first revealed by Roberts during a recent interview with IGN, where the director confirmed new details about the newest film adaptation including the reboot’s scarier tone, dark atmosphere and creepy locations.
“The big thing for this movie is tone. The thing I loved about the games is they were just scary as hell and that is very much what I wanted to,” Roberts said. “That atmosphere—it's [raining], it’s constantly dark, it’s creepy. Raccoon City is kind of this rotten character in the movie and that sort of atmosphere in the games I wanted to put in [the film].”
He added, “We have two very separate locations but we split people off into their worlds. One is more of a siege movie style with the police station, and then you have the mansion which is creepy as f*ck.”
The movie is directed by Johannes Roberts (47 Meters Down) from a screenplay he co-wrote with Greg Russo. It is produced by Robert Kulzer for Constantin Films, the same studio behind the first film franchise.
(Images via Sony Pictures)
