Filmmaker Johannes Roberts (“47 Meters Down”) has reportedly revealed that “Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City” will be the title of the upcoming reboot of the film series based on the popular video game franchise.
Revealing the information in an interview with IGN during this year’s virtual edition of SXSW, this new feature adaptation of the popular Capcom video game series will be set in 1998 and is in no way connected to the previous films starring Milla Jovovich.
The project is adapting the first two games in the series, so both the Spencer Mansion and Raccoon City itself will be seen:
“Obviously, there is the Resident Evil [film] franchise and this movie doesn’t have anything to do with that. It’s a whole separate origin story based in the roots of the and the world of horror… We’re not [making a remake]. We’re going in a completely different [direction]… It was a real pleasure to be given the reins of a new franchise, hopefully, that really is its own thing.
The thing I loved about the games is they were just scary as hell and that is very much what I wanted. That atmosphere, it’s rain, 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].”
The cast includes Kaya Scodelario as Claire Redfield, Robbie Amell as Chris Redfield, Hannah John-Kamen as Jill Valentine, Tom Hopper as Albert Wesker, Avan Jogia as Leon S. Kennedy and Neal McDonough as William Birkin with Donal Logue playing Chief Irons.
Roberts also says he’s a huge John Carpenter fan and he’s going for that aesthetic with the “claustrophobic siege movies” of his like “Assault on Precinct 13” and “The Fog” being his direct inspiration.
“Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City” is currently scheduled to arrive in cinemas on September 9th. The project is separate from Netflix’s live-action series and the animated series “Infinite Darkness” which are both on the way.
