Milla Jovovich

Grab your calendars, zombie fans, because Resident Evil: Afterlife is on the move again.

The fourth installment in the series (based on Capcom's popular game franchise) was originally slated to debut in late September of this year. However, concerns about having the film completed in 3D in that timeframe led to the film being pushed back to January of 2011.

Apparently, that move was much ado about nothing as our colleagues at Shock Till You Drop are now reporting that the title is once again changing release dates. Unlike last time, this new opening window should make fans happy.

According to the site, Resident Evil: Afterlife will now make its theatrical debut on September 10th of this year. No details have been given for why the shift was made, but as Shock points out, opening the film in January would have put it up against Cabin in the Woods (also in 3D), thereby limiting the number of screens the movie could play on.

Whatever the reason, it now appears we'll be seeing Milla Jovovich fight her one woman war against the evil Umbrella Corporation before Halloween as opposed to after New Years.

Like it or not, it seems that Twitter is here to stay as a news source. More and more films are taking advantage of the social networking site to keep fans abreast of virtually every step of the filmmaking process. Actors, directors, and even producers have used the service to market their work, share what's happening on set, and even break news and that trend doesn't look to be changing anytime soon.

The latest genre celebrity to tweet up a storm while filming is none other than Milla Jovovich. Hard at work on Resident Evil: Afterlife, the actress has still found time to fire off an amazing number of posts. Fans who've been following along (you can find her feed here) have been treated to lots of chatter about what's being shot, the rigors of making a zombie film, and even the occasional bit of insider info. Take this tidbit, for example:

"Valentine MAY b back..."

Character Jill Valentine (played by Sienna Guillory) hasn't been seen since Resident Evil: Apocalypse, but would be another familiar face to go alongside Ali Larter's Claire Redfield should this actually come to pass. No word on whether or not Guillory would be returning to play the role, but we'll keep you posted.

Resident Evil: Afterlife is currently shooting. It's expected to release theatrically in September of 2010.

You might not know who actor Boris Kodjoe is, but that's not stopping the Starship Troopers 3: Maruader star (here's looking at you, Dix Hauser) from spilling all kinds of beans about Afterlife, the fourth entry in the Resident Evil franchise. First he Twittered about being cast in the film, and now he's pre-empted the film's PR department once again and unveiled even more production tidbits in an interview with Black Film.

For starters, he confirms that Paul W. S. Anderson will be returning as the director, his first time back in the command chair since the first Resident Evil. Secondly, he's mentioned that Ali Larter will be reprising her role from the third RE film as the undead-hating Claire. Third, "Prison Break" star Wentworth Miller will be joining the franchise. And if letting the cast out of the bag isn't good enough for you, Kodjoe goes on to give away a good chunk of the Resident Evil: Afterlife plot as well:

Bloody Disgusting is reporting that the producers of Resident Evil: Afterlife have glimpsed the dwindling future of their ongoing series and have decided to regress back to their infancy instead of embracing the inevitable demise of their franchise. Afterlife, the fourth entry in the series, was supposed to kick off a new trilogy of films chronicling the adventures of Alice (Milla Jovovich) as she raged against the faceless source of the zombiepocalypse, the Umbrella Corporation. However, B-D is claiming that producers have decided that increasing costs in keeping the principle talent on board will necessitate the fifth entry now be a reboot of the entire series.

One would think that late in the game Sony Screen Gems might as well just do a spin-off series, right? Introducing a new starlet in Afterlife and moving on from there should be easy enough, but apparently that idea is too terrifying to even entertain. Instead the tentatively titled Resident Evil Begins will return right back to where the series started, "While it's a long, long, long way off, the idea is to redo the story of a special military unit who fights a powerful, out-of-control supercomputer and hundreds of scientists who have mutated into flesh-eating creatures after a laboratory accident."

Funny enough, in my searches for a picture of the Uroboros, the traditional symbol of a dragon that swallows its own tail forever representing the eternal return, I learned that the big threat in the fifth Resident Evil game is called...wait for it... the Uroboros Virus. Except in the game, that concept is used to make more monsters, not more money.

By William Goss

Poor, poor Benicio Del Toro. A former resident of last February, last April and this coming November, his take on The Wolf Man has been bumped back to next February now. That's right: for all the re-scheduling and re-shoots, Joe Johnston's version of the classic monster movie has all but lapped itself on the release slate, hoping to serve as R-rated counter-programming on February 12th, 2010 to Valentine's Day fare and maybe rake in the kind of opening weekend that Friday the 13th had this year ($40 million -- albeit followed by a steep 80% drop in attendance)

More at Cinematical!

The Resident Evil well springs eternal. With three movies already under its biosuit (not counting the animated film Degeneration) and more games than I can shake a controller at, I think it's safe to say that RE is the most prolific zombie franchise ever created. It's influence is felt far greater in the video game world than Hollywood, but that has yet to stop Screen Gems from pumping out the undead actioners.

Which brings us the fourth in the film series (the aforementioned Degeneration was a standalone project more in line with the games than the films), titled Resident Evil: Afterlife. Shock Till You Drop picked up on a production report outlining the film's future, which will begin an eight week shoot starting this September with an expected release date of September 17, 2010. Though there is no director attached to the film yet, it's been confirmed that the always appreciated Milla Jovovich will be reprising her role of the fanboy loved Alice, destroyer of all things sans pulse. Also returning will be fanboy bait Paul W.S. Anderson, though as of this moment his duties will be strictly confined to the word processor side of things.

For those ready to jump ship after reading Anderson's name, I say give the Internet whipping boy a break. Yes, AVP squandered decades of banked potential, but he did kick off the Resident Evil franchise with not just its strongest entry, but also the strongest film he's ever been involved with. I also think the man deserves some credit for the success of the first RE, which I'd wager is directly correlated to the resurgence of Hollywood's faith in zombies. That's gotta count for something, right?

Two couples deal with horrors while hiking through a remote wilderness. Meh, we've seen that before, right? Yes, absolutely. But here's a flick that I'm (all of a sudden) pretty psyched to see, despite its relatively familiar plot lines. The writer / director is David Twohy, whom genre fans remember from Warlock, The Arrival, and Pitch Black. So that's a good thing. Plus the casat includes Steve Zahn, Timothy Olyphant, and Milla Jovovich ...which helps a LOT!

Here's the trailer!


(Thanks to LiveForFilms for the heads-up. They also have the new poster.)