The Resident Evil franchise only recently wrapped up but plans are already in place for a new six film series to reboot the property (the announcement came just five days after the final instalment of the current iteration was released on Blu-ray). However, when star Milla Jovovich was asked about these plans this week, she responded: "Okay, well good luck with that."
Ouch! That's not exactly a ringing endorsement. "I think a lot of people with these franchises kind of put the cart before the horse," she continued. "There’s a danger to that. They’ve been wanting to reboot Resident Evil for a long time, and listen: I love the Resident Evil world. I think it’s a great property, I would do it if I was a producer."
It's interesting that Sony has been waiting to reboot the franchise, though it remains to be seen what direction it will now take. Jovovich has some ideas, however.
"I think what made Resident Evil so special is that the people involved really loved what they’re doing and really were fans of the game. I would suggest that you find people that have that same passion for the property before you talk about reboots. I think if you get into this kind of genre, people are very sensitive to fakes. There’s some real fans in the sci-fi/action/horror world, and they’re not idiots. They can smell when something is done because people love it and when something is done just to monetize an opportunity."
While Jovovich's Resident Evil movies were critically panned, they performed well enough at the box office but weren't exactly anything special. With that in mind, it's hard not to wonder if the franchise will now find a more mainstream appeal. However, given the way video game movies are often handled during the transition from consoles to the big screen, it's hard to say. We'll see.