Paul W.S. Anderson has been involved with the Resident Evil film franchise as a director and/or writer since the very beginning in 2002. With Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, he brings the story of Alice (Milla Jovovich) to a close with the biggest action we’ve seen from the series to date.
Screen Rant talked with Anderson at the press day for The Final Chapter about the huge scale of the action and about how The Final Chapter is the culmination of plans he’s had going all the way back to the first movie.
Paul, how are you today?
Paul W.S. Anderson: I’m bloody marvelous, having fun.
You know Resident Evil was one of the first video games that scared the living s**t out of me.
Paul W.S. Anderson: You and me both.
We’ve been through six Resident Evil films now, and every time I watch one of these the action and the stunts just outdo the last one I just saw. How do you keep it up, and what is it when you’re writing, you say, “You know what? I’m just gonna outdo that last thing.”
Paul W.S. Anderson: Well this movie, because it’s the end of the franchise, bringing everything full circle, I really had to deliver. There was a lot of pressure on me as a filmmaker to raise the bar and do better than before so, you know, I put a lot of thought and energy into it, that’s for sure.
Yeah, some of those stunt sequences were just mind blowing this time around.
Paul W.S. Anderson: You know, I’m very fortunate that I work with actors who are willing to kind of put themselves in the middle of that stuff because it makes the action that much better, and it frees me up as the filmmaker, you know, if I don’t have to hide shooting over someone’s shoulder because there’s a lot of stunt doubles involved. Like, for example, one of the best scenes, action-wise, I think is when Milla and Ian Glenn fight on top of that troop transporter.
That’s one of my favorite scenes, yeah.
Paul W.S. Anderson: It’s really them. That makes my job a little easier, that I can thrash around with the camera. I can put the audience right in the middle of that action because it’s really the actors doing it.
That’s amazing. So this is called The Final Chapter. Is it the final chapter, and is there anything else you’d want to do with the franchise if it isn’t the final chapter?
Paul W.S. Anderson: I had several secrets that I’ve been keeping with me for fifteen years, ever since we’ve made the first movie. The truth about the Alice character, the truth about the Red Queen, the real agenda of the Umbrella Corporation, those are things that I’ve known for fifteen years and I haven’t told anyone, even Milla.
Really?
Paul W.S. Anderson: And all of those things are given away in this movie. So this is very much something that I’ve been planning for a long time, to kind of close the circle on the franchise, to bring it full circle, to bring Milla back to where it all began, back to the Hive, to finish the job she started fifteen years ago.
So you’ve actually seen this all the way out, all six films, this was planned?
Paul W.S. Anderson: This was always going to be the endgame, yes.
Wow, that’s amazing. Now, a while ago there were talks about a Resident Evil TV show. How do you feel about an eventual reboot and would you be involved with that said TV show?
Paul W.S. Anderson: You know, I’ve very much kind of done—I’m very excited about what we’ve done here, kind of like created this six movie franchise that goes full circle, and as for anything that might happen beyond that, you know, I’ve always said passionately that I would love to see Resident Evil the Musical, I’d love to see those zombies kind of dancing like in Thriller, so maybe that would be a great direction to go in.
You made one of my favorite video game movies also, Mortal Kombat, so thank you for that. Any other video game franchises you're eyeing?
Paul W.S. Anderson: There's another game that Capcom—who make Resident Evil—have created called Monster Hunter, which is these amazing, amazing creatures in these fantastical realms. I'm very excited about that.
OK, well, thank you very much for your time.