GameSpot got the chance to talk with Paul W.S. Anderson, the director and writer of
Resident Evil: Retribution, and they discussed how it's like to bring such a character like Leon S. Kennedy to the movie, the return of the characters that died on previous movies and what the fans should be more excited about the movie:
GS: What are the challenges of taking someone who is so well known by gamers like Leon S. Kennedy and putting him up on the big screen for Resident Evil: Retribution?
PA: Well, it's obviously a lot of pressure because of that and especially Leon because he has such an extreme look. Firstly, he's a major action hero. But also he has the floppy hair, and you have no idea how hard it is to find someone who looks like that. They're usually mutually exclusive. It's like the guys with floppy hair are all kind of doing British period movies, like Brideshead Revisited, and the guys who are top action heroes usually have buzz cuts. But I think after a long and very exhaustive search, we've finally found the right guy in Johann Urb (2012, The Hottie & The Nottie).
GS: Being a gamer yourself, what do you think gamers should be most excited about when it comes to Retribution and how you're putting this together?
PA: We're using the Las Plagas parasite, which was introduced in Resident Evil 4. I love this because it gives me the opportunity to have undead star creatures who can basically do cool new things. And we also looked at how that was followed up with Resident Evil 5. It gives me the opportunity to use undead creatures that can ride motorbikes and shoot machine guns at the same time, which is definitely a first. In the world of the undead there ain't nobody doing that, just me.
GS: How will the new Resident Evil movie differentiate itself from the others?
PA: One of the things we've tried to do with the films is to progress the franchise and make each movie exciting and fresh again. I really feel like these creatures that are taken straight from the game give us the opportunity to do that. In Resident Evil 5 there's an awesome sequence, one of my favorites, where you're driving a Hummer across the desert while engaging in a machine gun battle with a bunch of creatures that are chasing you while they're riding motor bikes and shooting machine guns. That's intrinsically Resident Evil because it's straight out of one of the games, but it's something totally fresh that you've never seen before. I think everyone can get excited about that, whether they're a game player or not.
GS: How does that work, since she died in the first film?(GameSpot asked about the return of Michelle Rodriguez character
PA: I can't tell you. It's one of the fun things about the movie I think. Colin Salmon, who was the leader of the Umbrella team in the first Resident Evil, is back as well. Oded Fehr, who died in the third Resident Evil: Extinction is back. We just had the table reading in Toronto with all the actors, and it was so much fun to have all these familiar faces and voices in the movie.
Resident Evil: Retribution has on the cast Milla Jovovich, Sienna Guillory, Boris Kodjoe, Johann Urb, Kevin Durand, Shawn Roberts, Michelle Rodriguez, Oded Fehr and Colin Salmon confirmed and is set to come in September 14, 2012 in 3D!
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