Ark2000
Well-Known Member
Most RE fans probably already know about this, and can find some more info if you search for it, but just to give anyone else a short version of troubled development through which Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City went through;
Originally developed as $40 million action horror sometime between late 2019 and early 2020, it was meant to be even closer to original RE games. But in 2020, after Constantin Film cut the budget down to $25 million, all the COVID problems, and the fact that at the end of the day Constantin cared more about keeping the rights for the franchise than making a really good film, Johannes Roberts had to keep re-writing his script again and again and again. And not just during pre-production, but during filming as well. And even months later after the filming was finished, the film had to go back for re-shoots.
In this thread i will include everything i could find about alternate storylines, changes, deleted scenes and anything similar regarding the film. Might be helpful to someone or just interesting to read and see what could have been.
RE Wiki posted some comments on couple reddit threads which went into details about what went wrong with the reboot;
Reddit Thread - "Why did James Wan leave the Resident Evil reboot?" - Posted by RE Wiki on r/residentevil, September 2022
Reddit Thread - "Unpopular opinion that will definitely get me downvoted to oblivion" - Posted by RE Wiki on r/residentevil, August 2022
At this time, not much is known about Roberts's first drafts, other than how those had more characters, monsters, and locations, and other things from original video games which would probably make the film better. This is all based on interviews with Roberts and some other people involved in the film, but i think this here is the best example of some great stuff from those drafts that we are missing thanks to budget cuts, studio interference and everything else which ultimately screwed this film up. Hunters, Crimson Heads, Pale Heads, giant spiders, Tyrant (or Mr X)... Check links for concept art of all of these;
collider.com
On one of my other threads, Maverick1 posted couple comments in which he talked about draft of the script for WTRC which he has. I know that one draft leaked out during filming but i don't know any details about it, and i don't know is it the same as the one Maverick1 has;
Maverick1 didn't mentioned what happened to Barry and Rebecca in that draft, but looks like this article did;
screenrant.com
I read somewhere around here another comment regarding the script for the film (not the draft Maverick1 talked about), which mentioned how it was 125 pages long. This means that the film could have been around two hours long. But the final film is barely 100 minutes long, and that's without without seven minutes long credits.
Here's the picture of script's cover which Robbie Amell posted on October 8, 2020. Might be hard to see without zooming on the picture, but the script is only titled "Resident Evil", which pretty much confirms that "Welcome To Raccoon City" was added later during post production. In my opinion, it's probably something else which Constantin wanted changed, maybe to not confuse audience, since they already have a film with RE title (Anderson's original). The draft on that picture is listed as "Shooting Draft" and is dated 30th September 2020 (funny enough, i'm posting this thread exactly two years later after this draft was written), it's also listed as "Version 7.2", and has three revisions from September 1, September 15 and September 30. All this points out to me that this script really did kept changing all the time during production;
In May 2021 Amell said how the film was going through re-shoots at that time. I don't know how big the re-shoots were or anything about changes, cuts, etc, but i do have to mention how about couple months earlier (March?), i remember how while doing some promo stuff for Resident Evil: Village, somebody from Capcom who was involved in the film as well said how they were just finishing CGI effects for Licker in the cut of the film he saw, so at least we know how probably nothing from the sequence at Raccoon City Orphanage was part of the re-shoots.
No deleted scenes from the film were released, but all the trailers for the film do show quite a few scenes and dialogue which are not in the film. These include;
Official trailer
0:07 - 0:16, Cut dialogue from Claire; "Every story has a beginning. Discover the origin of evil."
0:09 - 0:11, Extended road block scene showing Umbrella soldier with the sniper and more citizens arriving in their cars.
0:23 - 0:27, Cut dialogue from Claire; "We need to expose Umbrella."
0:56 - 0:57, Very quick shot of what looks like extended attack scene on Brad while he's in the helicopter, but i could be wrong about this.
1:00 - 1:02, Cut dialogue from Claire (i think); "We have to contain this."
1:13 - 1:15, Birkin looking at some file or something similar while in underground lab, right next to the zombie on the table who is still in the film.
1:18, This one's weird. It's a shot from Claire's nightmare scene but it looks like it's also part of the Ashford footage which she and Leon are watching after they get into the lab...?
2:00 - 2:02, Cut dialogue from Claire; "We're gonna take Umbrella down." This and dialogue from 0:23 could be part of original ending, described in Maverick's synopsis of leaked draft.
International trailer;
0:44 - 0:49, More dialogue from Claire which i don't think is in the film; "If we don't contain this, it could threaten the whole world."
1:34 - 1:36. Even longer road block scene with more extra shots, not shown in official trailer. It shows Umbrella soldier firing from grenade launcher and another one on what looks like military Humvee or something firing from machine gun.
Nightmare trailer;
0:10, - I think that shot of Lisa Trevor twisting her head is not in the film.
0:15 - 0:26, More cut dialogue from Claire; "The Umbrella corporation has been experimenting on this town since we were kids. People are getting sick. We have to stop Umbrella."
0:32 - 0:35, Again, more cut dialogue from Claire; "The world needs to know what's really going on."
0:32 - 0:35, Three shots showing Raccoon City during the day, but it looks to me like first two shots are showing an actual city and third shot is only one which shows some small town in middle of nowhere, like what Raccoon is supposed to be in the film, so i don't know what's going on there.
0:43 - 0:45, Extra scene with Lisa Trevor at Raccoon City Orphanage showing her twisting her arms around.
That's all for trailer stuff. If i missed something or made a mistake, let me know.
And there's also this, behind the scenes picture and video showing Gun Shop Kendo. Another original location from RE 2, which however is not in the final film;
I know there was also a picture someone from the film crew released which showed the head of Tyrant/Mr. X inside the underground lab where Birkin and his family are, but i couldn't find the picture. This scene, or at least any shots which would show this practical effect, are not in the film.
Another thing i remember reading, including on some posts here on RE.org, but can't find any source to confirm is how originally Jill and Leon were written as white characters just like they are in the games, but Constantin once again stepped in and demanded changes, apparently for more "diverse casting"...? I did read about some original casting choices, like how Alexandra Daddario was early choice for Jill, India Eisley for Claire, and Brenton Thwaites or Harris Dickinson for Leon, so i don't know, might be true, specially with how some similar decisions and choices movie studios make nowadays.
Originally developed as $40 million action horror sometime between late 2019 and early 2020, it was meant to be even closer to original RE games. But in 2020, after Constantin Film cut the budget down to $25 million, all the COVID problems, and the fact that at the end of the day Constantin cared more about keeping the rights for the franchise than making a really good film, Johannes Roberts had to keep re-writing his script again and again and again. And not just during pre-production, but during filming as well. And even months later after the filming was finished, the film had to go back for re-shoots.
In this thread i will include everything i could find about alternate storylines, changes, deleted scenes and anything similar regarding the film. Might be helpful to someone or just interesting to read and see what could have been.
RE Wiki posted some comments on couple reddit threads which went into details about what went wrong with the reboot;
Reddit Thread - "Why did James Wan leave the Resident Evil reboot?" - Posted by RE Wiki on r/residentevil, September 2022
Reddit Thread - "Unpopular opinion that will definitely get me downvoted to oblivion" - Posted by RE Wiki on r/residentevil, August 2022
At this time, not much is known about Roberts's first drafts, other than how those had more characters, monsters, and locations, and other things from original video games which would probably make the film better. This is all based on interviews with Roberts and some other people involved in the film, but i think this here is the best example of some great stuff from those drafts that we are missing thanks to budget cuts, studio interference and everything else which ultimately screwed this film up. Hunters, Crimson Heads, Pale Heads, giant spiders, Tyrant (or Mr X)... Check links for concept art of all of these;
‘Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City': Unused Monsters Revealed In Concept Art
Is that Mr. X?
collider.com
On one of my other threads, Maverick1 posted couple comments in which he talked about draft of the script for WTRC which he has. I know that one draft leaked out during filming but i don't know any details about it, and i don't know is it the same as the one Maverick1 has;
George A. Romero's other Resident Evil scripts still exist!
Oh he still does it on his Youtube channel, one every month. He just did one few days ago about John Carter of Mars. Here's the full playlist of all his episodes; https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLi3qNHDp3KQwZ-_7qZatshCNzam4cFPbx He said couple times he wasn't happy with how his Resident...
residentevil.org
George A. Romero's other Resident Evil scripts still exist!
Oh he still does it on his Youtube channel, one every month. He just did one few days ago about John Carter of Mars. Here's the full playlist of all his episodes; https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLi3qNHDp3KQwZ-_7qZatshCNzam4cFPbx He said couple times he wasn't happy with how his Resident...
residentevil.org
Maverick1 didn't mentioned what happened to Barry and Rebecca in that draft, but looks like this article did;
Barry & Rebecca's Cut Roles In Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City
Barry and Rebecca's deleted roles in WTRC.
screenrant.com
I read somewhere around here another comment regarding the script for the film (not the draft Maverick1 talked about), which mentioned how it was 125 pages long. This means that the film could have been around two hours long. But the final film is barely 100 minutes long, and that's without without seven minutes long credits.
Here's the picture of script's cover which Robbie Amell posted on October 8, 2020. Might be hard to see without zooming on the picture, but the script is only titled "Resident Evil", which pretty much confirms that "Welcome To Raccoon City" was added later during post production. In my opinion, it's probably something else which Constantin wanted changed, maybe to not confuse audience, since they already have a film with RE title (Anderson's original). The draft on that picture is listed as "Shooting Draft" and is dated 30th September 2020 (funny enough, i'm posting this thread exactly two years later after this draft was written), it's also listed as "Version 7.2", and has three revisions from September 1, September 15 and September 30. All this points out to me that this script really did kept changing all the time during production;
In May 2021 Amell said how the film was going through re-shoots at that time. I don't know how big the re-shoots were or anything about changes, cuts, etc, but i do have to mention how about couple months earlier (March?), i remember how while doing some promo stuff for Resident Evil: Village, somebody from Capcom who was involved in the film as well said how they were just finishing CGI effects for Licker in the cut of the film he saw, so at least we know how probably nothing from the sequence at Raccoon City Orphanage was part of the re-shoots.
No deleted scenes from the film were released, but all the trailers for the film do show quite a few scenes and dialogue which are not in the film. These include;
Official trailer
0:07 - 0:16, Cut dialogue from Claire; "Every story has a beginning. Discover the origin of evil."
0:09 - 0:11, Extended road block scene showing Umbrella soldier with the sniper and more citizens arriving in their cars.
0:23 - 0:27, Cut dialogue from Claire; "We need to expose Umbrella."
0:56 - 0:57, Very quick shot of what looks like extended attack scene on Brad while he's in the helicopter, but i could be wrong about this.
1:00 - 1:02, Cut dialogue from Claire (i think); "We have to contain this."
1:13 - 1:15, Birkin looking at some file or something similar while in underground lab, right next to the zombie on the table who is still in the film.
1:18, This one's weird. It's a shot from Claire's nightmare scene but it looks like it's also part of the Ashford footage which she and Leon are watching after they get into the lab...?
2:00 - 2:02, Cut dialogue from Claire; "We're gonna take Umbrella down." This and dialogue from 0:23 could be part of original ending, described in Maverick's synopsis of leaked draft.
International trailer;
0:44 - 0:49, More dialogue from Claire which i don't think is in the film; "If we don't contain this, it could threaten the whole world."
1:34 - 1:36. Even longer road block scene with more extra shots, not shown in official trailer. It shows Umbrella soldier firing from grenade launcher and another one on what looks like military Humvee or something firing from machine gun.
Nightmare trailer;
0:10, - I think that shot of Lisa Trevor twisting her head is not in the film.
0:15 - 0:26, More cut dialogue from Claire; "The Umbrella corporation has been experimenting on this town since we were kids. People are getting sick. We have to stop Umbrella."
0:32 - 0:35, Again, more cut dialogue from Claire; "The world needs to know what's really going on."
0:32 - 0:35, Three shots showing Raccoon City during the day, but it looks to me like first two shots are showing an actual city and third shot is only one which shows some small town in middle of nowhere, like what Raccoon is supposed to be in the film, so i don't know what's going on there.
0:43 - 0:45, Extra scene with Lisa Trevor at Raccoon City Orphanage showing her twisting her arms around.
That's all for trailer stuff. If i missed something or made a mistake, let me know.
And there's also this, behind the scenes picture and video showing Gun Shop Kendo. Another original location from RE 2, which however is not in the final film;
Resident Evil Reboot: Leon in Costume, New Set Photos - Rely on Horror
Our first look at Leon in his R.P.D. blues, plus some more sets and set-dressed shooting locations from the Resident Evil movie reboot!
www.relyonhorror.com
I know there was also a picture someone from the film crew released which showed the head of Tyrant/Mr. X inside the underground lab where Birkin and his family are, but i couldn't find the picture. This scene, or at least any shots which would show this practical effect, are not in the film.
Another thing i remember reading, including on some posts here on RE.org, but can't find any source to confirm is how originally Jill and Leon were written as white characters just like they are in the games, but Constantin once again stepped in and demanded changes, apparently for more "diverse casting"...? I did read about some original casting choices, like how Alexandra Daddario was early choice for Jill, India Eisley for Claire, and Brenton Thwaites or Harris Dickinson for Leon, so i don't know, might be true, specially with how some similar decisions and choices movie studios make nowadays.
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