Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City Director Reveals How The Reboot Will Be Different

Movie adaptations of popular video games rarely satisfy fans of either medium. However, studios have a habit of continuously turning them into blockbusters. Despite their seemingly poor reception among fans and critics, these films have been successful in the past, and the "Resident Evil" series is a prime example of why filmmakers are keen to capitalize on popular gaming franchises. Based on the horror games of the same name, the "Resident Evil" saga has grossed over $1 billion at the global box office, which is no small feat (via The Numbers).

"Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City" will bring the spooky franchise back to the screen later this year, albeit in the form of a reboot. The new film will chronicle the origins of the virus that turns humanity into bloodthirsty zombies and veer away from the style that's associated with the other movies. While "Resident Evil: The Final Chapter" did big business at the box office, the series had arguably run out of steam from a creative standpoint by the time it was released. As such, "Welcome to Raccoon City" will make some big changes, and the director has shared some of the details ahead of the film's upcoming release.

The "Resident Evil" movies made some big changes from the games, opting for action over spine-tingling horror. "Welcome to Racoon City" promises to be a return to the terror-fueled sensibilities of the early video games, with the aim of scaring viewers. In an interview with IGN, director Johannes Roberts explained that he's more interested in unleashing scares than delivering big action set-pieces, which should come as good news to fans.

"I was hugely influenced in particular by the remake of the second game and I really wanted to capture the atmosphere-drenched tone that it had. It was so cinematic. The previous movies were very bright and shiny whereas this movie was dark and grimy, entirely shot at night," he explained, before noting that viewers can expect a movie that's full of spooky mist and rain, inspired by 1970s classics like "The Exorcist" and "The Deer Hunter." 

The first six "Resident Evil" movies centered around Alice (Milla Jovovich), but the reboot will give ample amount of screen time to a host of characters. "I think previously everything had been all about the Alice character — which was never in the games — and the game characters that did appear like Jill, Leon, Claire, and Chris did so as kind of supporting cameos," Roberts said. "Jill and Leon in this movie are equal leads along with Claire and Chris and Wesker."

Sounds like fans should anticipate a much more faithful adaptation, and that can only be good news.