The first images of the upcoming video game movie adaptation Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City have been released, courtesy of IGN. The images give fans a glimpse into how prominent characters such as Leon Kennedy, Claire Redfield, and Albert Wesker will look on the big screen. Furthermore, director Johannes Roberts explained how the film will rely more on horror elements compared to past action-oriented Resident Evil films.
According to Roberts, the movie will primarily focus on the events of the first two Resident Evil games, from the STARS investigation of the Spencer mansion to Leon and Claire in the Raccoon City Police Department. The revealed images show exactly this, with one shot showcasing the four surviving STARS members just as they enter the mansion. In another image, we can see Claire Redfield and Leon Kennedy standing side by side, with Leon wearing his signature Raccoon City police uniform.
The third image features a relatively minor character from the first Resident Evil title: Lisa Trevor, the daughter of the Spencer mansion architect, who the Umbrella Corporation kidnapped and experimented on in order to test the Tyrant and G-Virus. Though Lisa wasn’t included in the game’s original release, she did make an appearance in the subsequent Gamecube and PC remasters of the title. Roberts states that the character will play a “pivotal role in the movie.”
On the topic of previous Resident Evil movies, Roberts distanced himself from the existing film franchise. Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, Roberts says, is entirely different from the action-packed films featuring Milla Jovovich, and is inspired by horror movies like The Exorcist and The Shining. Instead of focusing on getting actors to be “cosplay characters who have the exact hair and costume,” the director focused on getting together a cast that “embodied the spirit and energy of the characters.”
Additionally, Roberts was influenced by the remake of Resident Evil 2 on nailing the overall horror tone and vibe in his film. “This was all about returning to the games and creating a movie that was much more a horror movie than the sort of sci-fi action of the previous films. I was hugely influenced in particular by the remake of the second game and I really wanted to capture the atmosphere-drenched tone that it had.”
[Source: IGN]
