He scared viewers with sharks in 47 Meters Down and spooked horror fans with some familiar masked faces in The Strangers: Prey at Night, and now filmmaker Johannes Roberts will look to bring his unique style to the Resident Evil movie franchise as the reboot's writer and director.
Variety reports that Roberts has been "hired by Constantin Film" to write and direct the Resident Evil movie reboot based on Capcom's popular video game franchise that has revolutionized the gaming world since its launch in 1996 with its unique survival horror gameplay that pits players against zombies and other mutated threats of the living dead variety. As reported by Variety, production on the reboot is being eyed to begin as early as 2019 with "a new cast" in front of the camera.
It was previously reported that Greg Russo had written a screenplay draft for the reboot and that James Wan would produce the movie through his Atomic Monster label, but their continued involvement with the project was not included in Variety's article.
Currently comprised of six films, the Resident Evil franchise kicked off in 2002 with Paul W. S. Anderson directing and Milla Jovovich starring as Alice, a highly skilled survivor and former employee of the sinister Umbrella Corporation, which unleashed a zombie apocalypse that put humankind on the brink of extinction. Jovovich would go on to star in all five sequels, the last of which came out in 2016.
Resident Evil: The Final Chapter grossed $312 million globally, so it's not surprising that Constantin Film, the production company behind all six of the Resident Evil movies (four of which were directed by Anderson) is eager to move forward on a new film.
In addition to 47 Meters Down and The Strangers: Prey at Night, Roberts also directed the horror movies The Other Side of the Door, Storage 24, and the upcoming 47 Meters Down: The Next Chapter.
We'll be sure to keep Daily Dead readers updated as more details are revealed, but in the meantime, what would you like to see in a seventh Resident Evil movie?
Johannes Roberts (pictured in the middle, photo by Brian Dogulas / Aviron Pictures):
Raised on a steady diet of R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps books and Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Derek has been fascinated with fear since he first saw ForeverWare being used on an episode of Eerie, Indiana.
When he’s not writing about horror as the Senior News Reporter for Daily Dead, Derek can be found daydreaming about the Santa Carla Boardwalk from The Lost Boys or reading Stephen King and Brian Keene novels.
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