Johannes Roberts opens up about how Lisa Trevor will be important to Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City's plot and Claire Redfield's story. The new film in the Constantin Films-produced franchise will serve as a reboot of the series based on Capcom's video games of the same name. Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City will see a group of survivors in the titular Midwest town working together to discover the secrets of the nefarious Umbrella Corporation and their ties to the unleashing of a deadly virus that forever changed the world.
The new film will see a closer adaptation of the source material, namely in its character roster, with Kaya Scodelairo starring as Claire Redfield, Avan Jogia as Leon S. Kennedy, Robbie Amell as Chris Redfield, Hannah John-Kamen as Jill Valentine, Tom Hopper as Albert Wesker, Lily Gao as Ada Wong, Neal McDonough as Dr. William Birkin and Donal Logue as Police Chief Brian Irons. Development on the reboot began while Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, Paul W.S. Anderson and Milla Jovovich's final film in the series, was still in theaters with Mortal Kombat scribe Greg Russo penning the script until Roberts was brought on to write and direct. After multiple delays in its release schedule, Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City is set to hit theaters on November 24.
To celebrate the release of the first images for the film, Roberts spoke with IGN to offer some insight for Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City. In reflecting on the inclusion of Lisa Trevor in the film, Roberts called it one of the more important elements for him to explore and expressed a desire to flesh her character out even better than the games and fix her absence from the previous films. See what Roberts said below:
"Lisa Trevor is actually quite a pivotal role in the movie. I was always fascinated by her when playing the remake of the first game. I found her character both disturbing and at the same time strangely haunting. When we were discussing how to bring this story to life it was one of the elements that I really wanted to feature strongly as she has never been in any of the filmed versions of Resident Evil. I wanted her to be a three-dimensional character, not just some creepy specter. We cast Marina Mazepa, who had just done Malignant for James Wan and really worked hard in bringing this character to life in a way I think the fans are going to love so much. She’s terrifying but also tragic. In the movie, we really connect her to Claire Redfield’s story, starting with the orphanage where Claire grew up."
Though not a small part of the source material, the character of Lisa Trevor is generally considered to haven't been as well-explored in the Resident Evil games as she could have been, outside of her tragic backstory being unveiled through a series of journal entries and expository dialogue. To hear Roberts feel so passionate about bringing Trevor to life on screen as more than just a spirit should prove an intriguing draw for longtime fans of the series and proof that the writer/director is more interested in remaining close to the Capcom mythology than that established by Anderson's films. With the new images and plot details now unveiled for the film, it looks as though the film will be adapting the events of both 2002's Resident Evil remake and the recent remake of Resident Evil 2, the former of which makes Trevor's inclusion as both vital and appealing for fans.
While some may still take enjoyment in the original approach Anderson took to his films, Roberts' Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City is certainly looking to be a step above its predecessors with its faithfulness to its source material. With the writer/director also promising the film will bring the series back to the horror roots of the Resident Evil games and the cast so far featuring exclusively game characters, it will be interesting to see how the latest adaptation of the survival horror series fares with players. Only time will tell when the film hits theaters in November.
Source: IGN