It seems that we’ve been approaching the Resident Evil reboot incorrectly.
In terms of the film’s title, at least. The official title for the upcoming Resident Evil film is Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, according to director Johannes Roberts, as confirmed by IGN during an interview at SXSW’s online event.
Roberts also revealed a few new details about the film, which will be released in theaters this September. Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City will adapt the first two Resident Evil games, and will feature main characters from both games, as we’ve known for a while.
Welcome to Raccoon City, like the original game, will take place in the year 1998 and tell the story of Raccoon City under siege by zombies. The Spencer Mansion and the Raccoon City Police Department will both appear in the film, as we’ve known for a while.
IGN also managed to grab a brief interview with Roberts, who said that he wanted to concentrate on the film’s tone. “The thing I loved about the games is they were just scary as hell and that is very much what I wanted. That atmosphere — it’s rain, it’s constantly dark, it’s creepy. Raccoon City is kind of this rotten character in the movie and that sort of atmosphere in the games I wanted to put in [the film].”
Not only that, but Roberts claims that he got the feel for Welcome to Raccoon City by seeing John Carpenter’s Assault on Precinct 13 and The Fog. “I’m a huge John Carpenter fan and I really took to that. The way he tells these claustrophobic siege movies and I took movies like Assault on Precinct 13 and The Fog and these disparate group of characters coming together under siege, and I took that as my filmic inspiration.”
On November 24, 2021, Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City will be released in theaters. Kaya Scodelario, Hannah John-Kamen, Robbie Amell, Tom Hopper, Avan Jogia, and Neal McDonough are among the cast members.
Sources & Further Reading:
bloody-disgusting.com
dailydead.com/welcome-to-raccoon-city-sign-with-resident-evil-operation-raccoon-city-order/
relyonhorror.com/articles/in-memoriam-raccoon-city-20-years-later/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resident_Evil:_Welcome_to_Raccoon_City
https://www.ign.com/articles/resident-evil-2021-movie-welcome-to-raccoon-city-title
https://residentevil.org/forums/threads/resident-evil-welcome-to-raccoon-city-2021.12119/
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