Resident Evil Movies Were On Ice Until Zach Cregger Came Along

The useful part

On paper, Zach Cregger directing a Resident Evil movie sounds like a smart move. The director has earned critical acclaim for his work on spooky flicks like Barbarian and Weapons, while Resident Evil is experiencing a resurgence thanks to several years of hit games. That's a pairing that almost never came to be, as after the dismal box office performance of 2021's Resident Evil:

How it works

• We're going to need to find a completely new way on how to adapt this for the future.' And, Zach, just only came out of Barbarian.
• Welcome to Raccoon City, movie distributor Constantin Films--who own the film rights to Resident Evil-- wanted to give the franchise a chance to rest before greenlighting a new project.
• That all changed when Cregger approached the company, as Constantin Films CEO Oliver Berben said that he already had ideas in mind for the Resident Evil movie he wanted to make.
• "Zach Cregger actually approached us, together with Roy Lee (a producer on Cregger's movies).
• He basically came to us, and asked if this franchise, if this IP, was available," Berben said in an episode of The Town.

What to take from it

"And it was really strange because at that time, first of all, we were in that situation that we said, 'Okay, we're going to leave it alone.