“George A. Romero’s Resident Evil” Hits Digital and On Demand January 7, 2025!

Uncork’d Entertainment is all ready to release the much-anticipated George A. Romero’s Resident Evil documentary come January 7, 2025, on Digital and On Demand. The upcoming offering dives deep into a live-action game adaptation that could have been.

Directed by Brandon Salisbury, George A. Romero’s Resident Evil is being promoted as an investigative documentary that answers certain questions about what happened to a project that continues to be talked about in the Resident Evil and general zombie horror fandoms.

According to Hollywood history, Constantin Film wanted to bring the Resident Evil video game to the big screen back in 1998. The iconic George A. Romero was supposed to direct the project. The decision made sense considering how Romero’s legacy has influenced the long-running Resident Evil IP. However, Romero’s take on RE never saw the day of light due to certain factors.

“George Romero gave birth to modern horror, the modern zombie, and ultimately Resident Evil,” said Salisbury. “I am honored to bring fans the untold story of his most important unmade project, to celebrate the legacy of the man that inspired me to pursue filmmaking as a career. I hope fans enjoy this ultimate experience in survival horror.”

The investigative doc features archival footage, “newly uncovered” documents, and interviews from well-known names in the RE fandom and the horror space.

Here’s the trailer!

The Resident Evil video game eventually did get a live-action adaptation written and directed by Paul W. S. Anderson and produced by Constantin Film in 2002. The series went on to include 6 films and made more than $1 billion at the global box office. However, fans of the games continued to not be interested in the major changes made to the game’s storyline with the movies focusing on an original character named Alice (Milla Jovovich) and treating the video game leads as supporting characters.

Even though I’m a fan of the RE games, I have to admit that I enjoyed the live-action franchise. I really liked Jovovich as Alice even though the narrative across the six films was all over the place. And also, the series will get points for me for casting queer actor Wentworth Miller as Chris Redfield because I don’t care what some people might think, Chris Redfield is a queer man.

A reboot of the live-action movie series titled Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City was released on November 24, 2021. Written and directed by Johannes Roberts, the reboot focused on following the video game’s original story more closely than the predecessor films with video game characters Chris Redfield, Claire Redfield, Leon S. Kennedy, and Jill Valentine forming an ensemble. But it ended up being a flop at the box office, earning only $42 million at the worldwide box office against a reported budget of $25 million.

Not only that, but Netflix got into the IP by releasing a live-action series on July 14, 2022. And that too didn’t perform well and got cancelled after a single season.

With no live-action adaptation delivering on the nostalgia of the original RE video game that came out back in 1996, of course, RE fans are still intrigued by what Romero could have brought to the table and how, if that particular film was made, would have changed the course of the series.

Are you looking forward to watching George A. Romero’s Resident Evil?

Let us know.

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(via Press Release)

Author: Farid-ul-Haq

Farid has a Double Masters in Psychology and Biotechnology as well as an M.Phil in Molecular Genetics. He is the author of numerous books including Missing in Somerville, and The Game Master of Somerville. He gives us insight into comics, books, TV shows, anime/manga, video games, and movies.

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