James Wan is no longer attached as a producer on the Resident Evil movie reboot. Fans of the Resident Evil game franchise have a love/hate relationship with the movies, which intentionally separated themselves from the game continuity to chart their own path. The movies introduced a brand-new protagonist named Alice, played by Milla Jovovich, and for the most part they eschewed horror and suspense in favor of outlandish action scenes. While the movie series never received great reviews they were always solid hits and remain the most successful video game adaptations to date, having collectively grossed over $1 billion worldwide.
The Resident Evil movie series ran for six movies, officially coming to a close with 2017’s Resident Evil: The Final Chapter. A movie reboot was announced shortly after, though conflicting reports suggested it could morph into a TV show instead. James Wan (Aquaman) was also announced as a producer on the project, indicating the reboot would return to the horror roots of the series.
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Johannes Roberts (The Strangers: Prey At Night) was recently hired to write and direct the movie, which aims to start production sometime in 2019. It was assumed Wan was still on board as producer, but in a new conversation with Bloody Disgusting, the filmmaker confirmed he’s no longer part of the project and that his name was attached prematurely.
I’m not doing that anymore. That has been dropped. They announce that I’m attached to a lot of stuff and a lot of them are not necessarily real. It’s kind of annoying when things come and go, or things never came in the first place. I hate it when my projects get announced. It makes it seem like I’m attached to a lot of things when in fact I’m not necessarily doing so many things. A lot of my stuff just get announced and I don’t want them to be announced but people love to announce them.
Wan has an impressive background with horror, having directed Saw and the first two Conjuring movies, so it’s a shame he’s no longer creatively involved. Wan also recently confirmed he was no longer attached to the Mortal Kombat reboot as a producer either, stating he couldn’t secure a script or budget he was entirely happy with. He did confirm in the above interview, however, that he’s still part of the forthcoming Train To Busan remake.
Little is known about what shape the new Resident Evil will take either, since no plot or casting details have been revealed. Screenwriter Greg Russo recently discussed his time on the movie, stating his draft was heavily inspired by video game Resident Evil VII: Biohazard, which stripped the series right down to its horror roots. That said, Russo also stated he’s no longer involved, so it could have changed direction entirely since then.
While the Jovovich movies were guilty pleasures in their own right, it would be great to see a Resident Evil movie that made an effort to stay true to the spirit of the games. Roberts’ filmography has a couple of solid genre movies on it, so hopefully, he can steer the film in the right direction.
