MillaJovovich

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.)