This morning, Sony released the first trailer for its upcoming Resident Evil movie, which isn’t an adaptation of any of the games. In fact, we don’t see much of anything that seems to directly connect the film to the stories of Leon Kennedy, Chris Redfield, or the Umbrella corporation in this first clip. However, director Zach Cregger sat down with IGN to talk about the trailer, and revealed how the film will be connected to the broader Resident Evil timeline when it comes to theaters in September.
The 13-minute trailer breakdown shows Weapons director Cregger talking about some of the shots they showed in the trailer, his personal Resident Evil history, and working with Capcom on the horror series’ next live-action film. You can watch the full thing below, but one of the first things he talks about is how the new movie will tie into the Resident Evil games. The film stars Austin Abrams as Bryan, a medical courier who has his own problems to deal with while Leon and co. are out trying to save the world. According to Cregger, this movie is meant to take place parallel to the events of Resident Evil 2 and the outbreak in Raccoon City.
“Basically my rule for this movie was to just try and try and make a movie that felt like my experience of playing the game that could live in the world of Resident Evil,” Cregger tells IGN. “I feel like this movie takes place alongside the events of Resident Evil 2. I like to think that everything that’s going on in the police station could be happening in this world. This is just another dude on another mission on the other side of town and like what’s going on with him.”
It remains to be seen just how overt the references to Raccoon City and Leon’s first day as a police officer will be, but it does sound like the movie’s sense of time and place are pretty concrete. Cregger says that Sony and Capcom and the powers that be didn’t interfere with his vision of a movie that wasn’t a more direct franchise tie-in, so some of the references are pretty subtle, such as a Green Herb pot from Resident Evil 4 that’s visible in the background of one of the shots in the trailer.
“I was very, very fortunate to have a studio and a production company that really supported me and never got in the way [with] ‘Well, you know, we got to make sure we’re doing X, Y, or Z,’” he says. “I was given nothing but support. I know there’s all kinds of horror stories you hear about filmmakers dabbling with IP and running into all sorts of frustrations, but I truly didn’t have that.”
Resident Evil is coming to theaters on September 18.
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