“Barbarian” filmmaker Zach Cregger is attached to write and direct a new film reboot of the “Resident Evil” video game franchise. His boarding the project has reportedly started an intense bidding war for the property with four studios vying for the project – including Warner Bros. Pictures and Netflix.
Cregger’s next film, the Josh Brolin and Julia Garner-led horror movie “Weapons,” is set up at New Line and reportedly has been scoring very high at test screenings. No release date for that has been locked. Constantin Film has held the screen rights to the title since the late 1990s and will produce the project alongside PlayStation Productions.
The property has seen multiple screen adaptations, most notably the Milla Jovovich-led 2002 action-horror film “Resident Evil” which spawned five sequels and generated$1.28 billion in global revenue and was once the highest-grossing film series based on a video game. A previous attempt to reboot the property took place in 2021 with the film “Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City,” which flopped with a gross of $42 million worldwide and mixed reviews.
That film was adapted from the stories of the first and second games in the series. Another attempt was made in 2022 with a Netflix TV series starring the late Lance Reddick. It launched to negative reviews and was cancelled after a single season.
Cregger’s version is a revamp that takes the title back to its horror roots and plans to be more faithful to the ini.
