The upcoming movie Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City tells the origin story of the Capcom games. Written and directed by Johannes Roberts (47 Meters Down, The Strangers: Prey at Night), this film is based on the first two Resident Evil games and chronicles how Raccoon City went from being a city of industry to a dying Midwestern town that’s now ground zero for the t-Virus outbreak.
In an exclusive e-mail interview with IGN, Roberts elaborated on the differences between his Resident Evil movie and the prior Screen Gems film series starring Milla Jovovich and produced by Paul W.S. Anderson, as well as how his vision for the movie draws not only from the Capcom games but also John Carpenter-era genre filmmaking.
IGN: Resident Evil is one of the most commercially successful video game movie franchises ever. Why reboot it instead of continuing it?
Johannes Roberts: I actually love the first movie so much. I think it’s great. And Milla just created such an iconic character. But it was its own thing. It wasn’t really Resident Evil as I knew it – the previous movies never captured the game and the feelings I got when playing the game (that’s not a criticism I think it just went in a different direction). I wanted to go back to the horror of it all. I wanted scares and atmosphere rather than full-on action. I think fans of the game felt the same – they wanted to see the iconic characters and locations and feel that the movie was more in line with the Resident Evil game world so that’s really why we chose to go in that direction. We worked hand-in-hand with Capcom on this movie… to the point that we actually got blueprints from them on the designs of the Spencer Mansion and Raccoon police station in order to recreate them as perfectly as we could. We even have the exact artwork up on the mansion walls. Capcom saw it for the first time the other day and was so happy and excited. And that – as a nerd – made me so happy and excited!
How do these incarnations of characters such as Jill Valentine and Leon S. Kennedy differ from their versions in the past films?
Johannes Roberts: The difference with this film as opposed to the previous movies is that it is an ensemble where each of the main characters carries huge importance to the narrative. They are not just cosplay characters who have the exact hair and costume of the characters. I think previously everything had been all about the Alice character – which was never in the games – and the game characters that did appear like Jill, Leon, Claire, and Chris did so as kind of supporting cameos. Jill and Leon in this movie are equal leads along with Claire and Chris and Wesker.
Jill was such a fun character to play around with – a sort of live-wire, small-town girl – she’s kick-ass but not in a superhuman way. You really feel scared for her when shit goes down. Hannah John-Kamen really brought her to life! Leon Kennedy was interesting because in many ways he was my way into the movie as a writer – I sort of saw the story through his eyes. I wanted to move away from the buff action hero that Leon has become in the later games and return to the Leon Kennedy of his very first ‘rookie’ incarnation in the Resident Evil 2 game. In this movie he is not at all an action hero – he’s slightly out of his depth, very hungover, and cannot believe the s**t that is going down on his first day. The events of the film help create the ‘hero’ Leon they know from the games.
There is definitely a Carpenter vibe to his character. When I was writing him I had sort of a cross between Jack Burton and MacReady in my mind! It was probably the trickiest role to cast to find someone who could carry that off! Avan Jogia really nailed it. He’s so wonderfully disheveled and out of his depth in the movie.
IGN: Can you define what your visual aesthetic was for this film in terms of differentiating what audiences have seen in past Resident Evil movies?
Johannes Roberts: This movie really had nothing to do with the previous franchise. 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. It was so cinematic. The previous movies were very bright and shiny whereas this movie was dark and grimy, entirely shot at night. It’s constantly raining and the town is shrouded in mist.
I was very influenced by seventies filmmaking techniques – we shot using zooms a lot! And there are no drone shots in the movie or crazy CGI camera shots that are physically impossible. The movie has a very old-school retro feel to it. I was hugely influenced by movies like The Exorcist (and Exorcist 3!), Don’t Look Now, and The Shining. You can really feel the texture in this movie. Nothing in this town feels hi-tech. It feels dilapidated. I wanted Raccoon City to feel a bit like the town in Deer Hunter; a ghost town forgotten by the rest of the world. And the whole structure of the film was definitely very influenced by Assault on Precinct 13.
IGN: How do the creature and character designs in your film differ from what fans of the games and the preexisting movies know?
Johannes Roberts: We always returned to the game whenever we were looking at the characters and creatures and locations. It was our guiding star. As I said before we worked very closely with Capcom. Every character and creature is from the game and as such, I wanted to be as faithful as possible. I wanted to create a truly immersive feeling for the fans. But that also became the trickiest part of adapting a piece of IP like this because I didn’t just want to put the game on screen – it had to be its own thing with living breathing characters and creatures (and of course zombies!) that felt true to the world. There is some cool s**t in there. I mean some of the creature stuff looks f***ing incredible. It was a mixture of prosthetics, CGI, and creature performers. There’s some wonderfully freaky stuff in there. You’ll immediately recognize the creatures from the game but hopefully, we’ve gone beyond the game in terms of making these terrifying creations feel like they really could exist in real life.
IGN: Can you talk about the casting of the roles of Leo and Jill and what you wanted to achieve with that?
Johannes Roberts: It was hugely important with the whole casting process to find people who embodied the spirit and energy of the characters I wanted to portray. I think often in game adaptations one of the big flaws can be just casting someone to look visually like the characters – giving them the identical haircut and clothes but not really trying to give the audience the thing that a movie does better than a game – which is to create a three-dimensional character that you can really connect with and believe in. I think as I said before one of the traps of falling into game adaptations is to make it feel like a giant cosplay version of the game.
Our cast is obviously much more diverse than the original games but I wanted to resist the trap of just casting because someone just happened to look like their character identically. We actually had a lot of actors who came in and recreated themselves perfectly visually as the character they were reading – it was uncanny at times ha! – but it was not what I felt this story needed. With Jill, I knew Hannah from Ready Player One and this show she was in at the time called The Stranger and I just knew she’d be perfect. Leon was much harder. We must have seen so many people – it was really quite a tricky role because of the balance of humor and weariness. Then Avan read and I was like he’s the one! He gets it.
IGN: What was your overall design philosophy on differentiating this film’s creature designs from both the existing films and games?
Johannes Roberts: There is actually quite a lot that has never been in any previous movie to be honest which is exciting. And even the stuff we have seen before – I won’t give it away but there are some iconic creatures fans will be so happy to see – we have really gone all out in making them feel like characters – we really focus in on each individual creature whether it be zombie, or crow, or Doberman or… (I won’t spoil the rest) – but it’s never huge wide shots of faceless hordes – it’s about detail. It’s about really connecting with that individual creature at that time. Making it feel like a living breathing thing. Feeling our characters' disbelief at what is unfolding.
John Carpenter is the master of this. Watch The Thing — each creature moment is treated as an artwork — you get to marvel at its entire glory. It’s never just hundreds of things thrown at you. There is real personality and life in each creature set piece. And the character reactions then just feel so honest and real. And the fear is then very real. I very much had this in mind when shooting Resident Evil – especially when recreating moments like the turnaround zombie from the game – as well as when things go REALLY crazy toward the end – I really invite the audience to revel in the creations we have put on screen. I can’t wait for people to see all of them in their full glory!
IGN: How much does the story of Lisa Trevor come into play in this film? And what is the importance of including her here? In this film?
Johannes Roberts: Lisa Trevor is actually quite a pivotal role in the movie. I was always fascinated by her when playing the remake of the first game. I found her character both disturbing and at the same time strangely haunting. When we were discussing how to bring this story to life it was one of the elements that I really wanted to feature strongly as she has never been in any of the filmed versions of Resident Evil. I wanted her to be a three-dimensional character, not just some creepy specter. We cast Marina Mazepa, who had just done Malignant for James Wan and really worked hard in bringing this character to life in a way I think the fans are going to love so much. She’s terrifying but also tragic. In the movie, we really connect her to Claire Redfield’s story, starting with the orphanage where Claire grew up.
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City opens only in theaters on November 24, 2021, in the US, December 3 in the UK, and November 25 in Australia.