Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City (2021)

[Jonipoon]

There are many things that worries me about this film, one thing being that specific part about ”One is more of a siege movie style with the police station, and then you have the mansion which is creepy as f*ck."
They’re attempting to tell two very different stories at two very different locations. The pacing and atmospheres will clash and come off as a disjointed mess, IOW a film that can’t make up its mind on what it’s trying to be.

 

[Storyofmylife]

I’m anxious about this movie for a few reasons, mainly the fact it’s missing some main characters...

“Barry, where’s Barry?” but seriously... where is he, Sherry and Rebecca? I hate being one of those nit picky fans, but you can’t have RE1/2 without those three.

 

[Hardware]

Well, apparently they are going through re-shoots...and unlike what somebody says in the comments section of this article, re-shoots are not part of the normal filmmaking process. Pick-ups (shooting something you didn't get to shoot during principal photography because of scheduling or whatever) are part of the normal filmmaking process - I can confirm it since, being a low-rent cinematographer by trade, I got hired to shoot A LOT of pick-ups over the years because the "real" DP wasn't available (and, being the unlucky bastard that I am, I had to do everything uncredited so far). Re-shoots mean that everything that was supposed to be shot is in the can but somebody (usually the producers) are unhappy with the final results - save for a very few examples (like the famous giant squid scene from 1954 "20000 Leagues Under the Sea"), re-shoots are usually harbinger of disaster as a ton of movies have been messed up by them...especially since they usually do not happen because of technical problems but because the producers\studio want to change the tone or direction of the story.

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[Ark2000]

Thanks for the news Hardware. Yeah, re-shoots can mean lot of things, but nowadays, specially considering how rumors, leaks and theories can spread and sometimes even mix up when it comes to movies going through re-shoots, it's hard to say what is really happening. And "official explanations" never really help to put anything at ease. I remember couple years back how re-shoots for Halloween and The Predator were explained as "additional photography", even though everyone and their dog knew how it was due to studio and/or test audiences having issues with the films. I wonder, did this film also already went through test screenings, and could this be why it's going back for re-shoots. Last news i heard about it over couple months ago when Capcom was doing promotions for Village was how they were finishing up CGI effects for the film, so it was already basically finished by then...?

What really worries me about these news is this; If there are problems with the film, sometimes re-shoots can help, but other times...

 

[Hardware]

Yeah, last time I heard about this movie was that they were in the process of adding VFX - which means that the edit on the picture was locked and approved as you cannot do stuff like VFX, color grading or titling on loose edits (you physically can, but at the cost of throwing away bits of footage that you payed to be "processed" - although footage is not actually processed anymore, I like the sound of it). I can only think of a couple of instances where reshoots actually helped - and, even in those rare cases, the result was controversial at best. And most modern movies that went through reshoots (Robocop 2014, The Predator, Rogue One etc.) didn't really benefit from it - even if they were not great to begin with, they only got worse. Again, reshoots usually happen because the executives' focus group had a look at the movie and didn't like it. Given a lot of them don't even read scripts, it's not surprising they have to wait for the movie to be essentially finished to make up their minds (all true - movies usually happen because of clever pitches accompanied by wise casting choices: money people only want a brief on the story. If they like it, their next question is "OK, who is in it?"). Working on a property like Resident Evil must be a nightmare, especially if you really want to stay close to the spirit of the original games as the director of this reboot said he wanted: there's probably a room full of suits with market research charts and whatnot pretending to know what the core audience (which, at this point, can range from 14 to 45 years olds - i.e. everything and nothing at the same time) wants.

 

[KManX89]

Yeah, last time I heard about this movie was that they were in the process of adding VFX - which means that the edit on the picture was locked and approved as you cannot do stuff like VFX, color grading or titling on loose edits (you physically can, but at the cost of throwing away bits of footage that you payed to be "processed" - although footage is not actually processed anymore, I like the sound of it). I can only think of a couple of instances where reshoots actually helped - and, even in those rare cases, the result was controversial at best. And most modern movies that went through reshoots (Robocop 2014, The Predator, Rogue One etc.) didn't really benefit from it - even if they were not great to begin with, they only got worse. Again, reshoots usually happen because the executives' focus group had a look at the movie and didn't like it. Given a lot of them don't even read scripts, it's not surprising they have to wait for the movie to be essentially finished to make up their minds (all true - movies usually happen because of clever pitches accompanied by wise casting choices: money people only want a brief on the story. If they like it, their next question is "OK, who is in it?"). Working on a property like Resident Evil must be a nightmare, especially if you really want to stay close to the spirit of the original games as the director of this reboot said he wanted: there's probably a room full of suits with market research charts and whatnot pretending to know what the core audience (which, at this point, can range from 14 to 45 years olds - i.e. everything and nothing at the same time) wants.

And in some cases, re-edits are done by a company who did the f*cking trailer, in the case of Suicide Squad. I'd be shocked, but WB makes so many boneheaded decisions, you really can't put anything past 'em at this point.

But I already grew nervous when they tried to cram the first 2 games' stories into one film and they hired the director of Strangers: Prey at Night to direct this (Johannes Roberts), but now, it appears the writing's on the wall and we're headed for ANOTHER cinematic trainwreck of our beloved zombie franchise. This is why we can't have nice things.

 

[Hardware]

And in some cases, re-edits are done by a company who did the f*cking trailer, in the case of Suicide Squad. I'd be shocked, but WB makes so many boneheaded decisions, you really can't put anything past 'em at this point.

But I already grew nervous when they tried to cram the first 2 games' stories into one film and they hired the director of Strangers: Prey at Night to direct this (Johannes Roberts), but now, it appears the writing's on the wall and we're headed for ANOTHER cinematic trainwreck of our beloved zombie franchise. This is why we can't have nice things.

Quite frankly, I am not that biased against Johannes Roberts: he never did anything memorable, but he's been steadily working on horror and thrillers for years and seems pretty knowledgeable about the classics of the genre. Let's face it, to make a good RE movie you need a horror journeyman, a seasoned professional who knows how Carpenter, Romero and all shot their movies: you don't need a "horror auteur" who might try to impose his themes\obsessions over the material (which is what Romero did with his RE script). Somebody like Roberts is probably the best choice for the role - provided that the script is decent, of course. In the old days, I used to think somebody like Brian Yuzna (who did Return of the Living Dead 3 - the lab scenes simply scream "Resident Evil!") would've been the best choice for such a project. Johannes Roberts is the same kind of director.

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[Wesker90]

Looking forward to it!

 

[sammyw]

Well im 100% gonna watch it. I doubt it will b eanything groundbreaking but worth a watch if your resident evil fan i guess.

 

[Bran]

I'm very interested in seeing how the actual story flows, and the cinematography. Considering Roberts says he is going for a very 80's Carpenter feel, it's right up my alley.

I also wouldn't be concerned with the additional photography. More than likely, people reporting (including the actor playing Chris) just used the wrong term, but I can see them having to film additional shots to connect the two story beats. From my discussions with someone involved, the script had issues with how it jumped through events between both games, so that may have been a priority to fix with some extra shots.