Zach Cregger’s New Resident Evil Seemingly Sets A Record For The Franchise

@Kiba - I think this movie will serve as a prequel that could lead directly into the events of the first game. If a sequel gets made I could it going that direction.

@Kiba - Looking back, it seems it's a mixture of creative decisions and also what Capcom thinks.

Back when Romero was working on his adaptation for RE, he was taking way too long with the drafts because they kept chopping at the budget and changing what would be required. Meanwhile, RE2 became a blockbuster for gaming on the PS1 and increased in popularity. By the time the first RE was decided on, Code Veronica was the last big RE game to release and so much had changed. So at the time, Capcom wasn't too thrilled about Romero and were more excited at someone taking a different approach to RE. Because they "liked" Anderson's approached, they championed his script. And of course if Constantin sees they are happy, then why not? And overall while I dislike them...they are moneymakers.

Fast-forward to the reboot, and now they FINALLY want to adapt the games. However the choice they had, had both good intentions but also the wrong set. His script was jam packed with characters and was trying to squeeze in RE1-3 all in one movie. While that stuck, so did a lot of character changes and more tropes added to RE to make it more digestible. Simply if the pitch was "We are adapting RE1" then whatever budget they had in mind, would make sense. But he wanted 15 cast members, several different monster designs...it would have ballooned to $100 million and Constantin, saw the work needed, and vetoed it to what we got instead.

FAST FORWARD AGAIN! Resident Evil is going BACK to the way they approached the first movie. No character from the games, put it in that setting and make your own story. The only major, major difference is that Zach Creggar joining Resident Evil, is the director equivalent of Christopher Nolan wanting to direct Mortal Kombat. It's a DREAM to even think that type of director would consider Resident Evil. Regardless of what people feel for his movies, he is a critic darling, and now commercially successful with just his name. So because this type of director, with this type of clout, is pitching Resident Evil...why the hell would they ignore? Theoretically and financially....this is the most amazing decision for the Resident Evil "movie" franchise.

The less said about the Netflix show, the better. Overall it was the exact approach how Paul W.S. Anderson saw it, do something different, slap Resident Evil on it, and call it a day. If Capcom felt off about it though, I'm sure we would have all known. The days for how much influence Capcom has though, are over. And it's only because the first six movies did so well at the BO that it made no sense to dictate what needs to be done if it's only enriching the franchise further. RE4, is proof of that "enrichment" to go more action oriented rather than full on horror and action as just the sub-genre.

Overall I do find it very telling how a lot of pitches shaft the first game are never ever mentioned or hell even RE2 with the franchise star Leon. I'm sure it was attempted, but I'm also sure that same director for WTRC, wanted to have his cake and eat it too (his sequel would have been Code Veronica...which again...just rushing through it all....)

@TheFinestSmack - The snow setting defeats the "prequel to the games" idea IMO.