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One of the biggest horror franchises of all time, Resident Evil, has seen its fair share of branching outside of videogames, going into both films and television through the decades.

However, back when Resident Evil was still within its first original trilogy of entries, and way before Paul W. S. Anderson brought the Resident Evil franchise into the silver screen on its first outing, there were rumours floating around about a possible live-action adaptation of the franchise made by the one film maker that brought the zombie idea as we know it today, that one being George A. Romero with his iconic "Night of the Living Dead" film from 1968.

George A. Romero had previously worked on a live-action commercial for the original release of Resident Evil 2, impressing Capcom enough to consider contracting him for a first-ever (at the time) movie for the franchise, and while Romero initially rejected the idea, he eventually got around to making a script and pitched it to Capcom. However, at the end of the day, his script pitch was rejected, and Capcom instead favoured that of Paul W. S. Anderson, giving birth to the Resident Evil movies starring Milla Jovovich that we know today. Not all was lost though, as Romero's whole script for the Resident Evil movie pitch ended up being leaked online years later.

Given the whole ordeal that went through with Romero and Capcom, fans have speculated about the rejected script, with many thinking what could have been if Romero had been given the rights of the franchise instead of Anderson. This sparked a group of fans to delve deeper into what happened back then, and after a lot of efforts, they gathered the resources needed to start a documentary film about Romero and his Resident Evil script.

In 1998, Constantin Film set out to adapt the greatest horror video game franchise of all time, hiring legendary film director George A. Romero. Now, Key 13 Films, in association with Point Five Films and director Brandon Salisbury set out to uncover the mystery behind why Romero’s vision was never produced.

George A. Romero’s Resident Evil is a stylized documentary, utilizing archived footage, unearthed documents, and newly filmed interviews with a wide variety of personalities. The documentary combines elements from Capcom’s hit video game series and the raw, visceral style of George A. Romero to full immerse the audience in a cinematic horror aesthetic.

Now, audiences everywhere will experience the “darkest day of horror the world will never know”, as they uncover the unrequited vision of… George A. Romero’s Resident Evil

The documentary is set to release on 2024, although the final set date hasn't been confirmed yet.

 

[LeyendaV]

The videogames industry is so massive, there're tons of stories like this. Some are well known, some pass as urban legends till confirmed, and some are completely unknown. That's what you gotta love this kind of lost media documentaries, and the reason why YT channels about these stories are so popular among the hardcore fans.

 

[Guacaholey]

It's so bizarre to me that they preferred Anderson's script.

 

[Veho]

It's so bizarre to me that they preferred Anderson's script.

Romero made too many changes from the source material, and he insisted on an R-rated movie.

 

[YoureALoser]

Romero made too many changes from the source material, and he insisted on an R-rated movie.

Nothing to do with changes & everything to do with rating.

 

[Foxi4]

I’m one of those weirdos who actually really, really liked the first Resident Evil movie (and the second one for that matter), I think it perfectly encapsulated the spirit of the time it was filmed in without straying *too* far from the source material. Things got a little wacky after the umpteenth sequel, but that’s kind of the fate of those kinds of films. It went the way of the Fast and Furious as opposed to the direction the games were taking, which is fine, but it’s not really Resident Evil anymore. Hey, Mila Jovovic needs to eat too, so I get it. I’m not sure if I can imagine how a Romero version would go - it’d certainly be interesting to see. He *is* the big daddy of zombies in cinema, so I have no doubt it’d be pretty good, just not necessarily “Resident Evil” without some supervision from Capcom, which as I understand is the reason why it fell through.

 

[HellGhast]

Nothing to do with changes & everything to do with rating.

Agreed. Btw an R-rated RE movie could actually have been awesome, instead corporate greed reared it's ugly head.

 

[Dontuuch17]

Romero made too many changes from the source material, and he insisted on an R-rated movie.

Wait, wasn't the first one R rated anyways?

 

[lordofcombo]

Are we talking romero the night of the living dead one or the wannabee i keep seeing with john carmack?

 

[Guacaholey]

Wait, wasn't the first one R rated anyways?

I'm not sure about the theatrical releases, but I know some of the DVD releases are R rated.

 

[Gilgamashu]

I’m one of those weirdos who actually really, really liked the first Resident Evil movie (and the second one for that matter), I think it perfectly encapsulated the spirit of the time it was filmed in without straying *too* far from the source material. Things got a little wacky after the umpteenth sequel, but that’s kind of the fate of those kinds of films. It went the way of the Fast and Furious as opposed to the direction the games were taking, which is fine, but it’s not really Resident Evil anymore. Hey, Mila Jovovic needs to eat too, so I get it. I’m not sure if I can imagine how a Romero version would go - it’d certainly be interesting to see. He *is* the big daddy of zombies in cinema, so I have no doubt it’d be pretty good, just not necessarily “Resident Evil” without some supervision from Capcom, which as I understand is the reason why it fell through.

I love the first and second movie as well. The first one was they did their best with their own original characters which isn't bad imo. And the second one followed Re3, and Jill's actress did her best to at least look like her and she's cool too(I'm probably bias here because I love Jill and RE3 back in the day). I didn't mind the power gap between Alice and Jill at first but in the third movie and the sequels, Alice went overboard lmao. Her psychic powers were off the charts and I felt like the story doesn't know where to go lmao

 

[The Frenchman]

Goddamn... Really have to rub it in?

I remember hearing the buzz arround the RE movie at the time and hearing that George A. Romero was attached, me and my buddy were fans of him and certainly big fans of RE and RE2. When it all fell through we were kind of upset and when I ultimately saw the movie it wasn't so bad but really not a Zombie flick, with RE2's underground lab I could enjoy the Hive plot but really it felt like a typical 2000's action flick.

When I saw the second one though I knew I would never enjoy the movies arround this series. I mean, Nemesis, helping a superpowered Alice? Hahaha! All the fight sequences and everything really made the whole thing laughable. Zombies are such a menace that they required a nuke to contain at the end of Re2, if you can just manage them hand to hand and even have the worst creature helping you out... Try making sense out of all that!

Then we have the later games that were obviopusly morphed by the movies, RE5, RE6 which had the sily action and over the top shit. really REVII went back to the basics and fans of the "series" shat on it for being too different to the rest when in fact it was trying to convey what the series was about.

So glad RE2 Remake is the game that it is. (RE4 Remake too)

The most frightening zombies are the slow moaning ones. Nothing beats the "huuuuuuuhhh..." of a RE2 zombie.

 

[AndorfRequissa]

way to many zombie movies. maybe they will entertain the braindead lemmings but damn create something original for once. alot of other video game genre deserve a movie way before garbage resident evil does

 

[lordofcombo]

No,they don't.

 

[The Frenchman]

way to many zombie movies. maybe they will entertain the braindead lemmings but damn create something original for once. alot of other video game genre deserve a movie way before garbage resident evil does

Can you not read?

This isn't a movoe cpming up but a documentary on a movie that was canned in the late 90's early 00's.

Yes zombie movies are now almost dead but at the time RE was the best Zombie content we had got in a long time. To hear that the father of zombie movies would make one, you can't underestimate that.