“Resident Evil: Retribution” Reverie!

Here’s your chance to get caught up on all the news, teasers, clips and interviews surrounding the impending release of RESIDENT EVIL: RETRIBUTION, all before tomorrow’s release. We have a fresh TV spot, a look at some stunts from the films, and interviews with Paul WS Anderson, Milla Jovovich, and Michelle Rodriguez. Check them out!

First up is a new TV spot:

Then we have a behind the scenes look at the stunts of RE: R:

Next up, we have an interview with Paul WS Anderson about the future of RESIDENT EVIL:

Dread Central: First of all, it was great to initially meet you back in December on set; seeing that world on the sound stage and now seeing how you brought it to life- I have to say that it really looked fantastic. Congrats on pulling that off!

Paul W.S. Anderson: Oh thank you very much! The crew hated me – HATED ME – because of all that shit flying around in the air (laughs). It was tough, though; plus the actors were freezing because there was real snow on the ground and we always kept it cold there (on the sound stage). It’s nice to know all that paid off (laughs).

Dread Central: So what was the deciding factor in returning to direct Resident Evil: Retribution and what was different for you this time around, considering your involvement in this franchise since the very beginning?

Paul W.S. Anderson: I think part of it was because we had ended Afterlife with such a cool cliffhanger that I almost felt obliged to come back and pay off that build-up. Plus, when you end something with that kind of imagery, you’d be cheating fans if you didn’t deliver on the epic battle that it suggests, and I wanted to be part of that. So Retribution was always going to be a direct continuation from the last film. So in some ways directing was a linear decision.

What I do think IS unexpected in this movie is the returning characters from earlier in the franchise, all of whom died of course. So Michelle Rodriguez is back, Oded Fehr is back, a whole bunch of other characters… they’re back, too, but this time they’re not only playing their normal characters, they’re playing other versions of them as well. So for me that was one of the most interesting things about Retribution.

That, plus Milla playing two very different versions of her Alice character, really made this appealing to me as a director. There’s ‘Battle Alice’ who has the black suit on and is ready, right there beside you to fight, and then there’s ‘Suburban Alice’ who has no weapons, no training and has a small child to take care of. Seeing ‘Suburban Alice’ sort of deal with this global outbreak is one of the strongest moments in the movie. I’m quite proud of this movie because I think it has the best jumps and scares of the whole franchise, and I think that comes partly from robbing Alice of all her powers and training that makes her very relatable to audiences.

Hands down, the ‘Suburban Alice’ section of Retribution has some of the scariest moments we’ve ever done in this series.

Dread Central: What I enjoyed about those scenes is that tonally they felt like a bit of a departure for the franchise; was that a conscientious decision on your part considering those were the moments where we’re seeing Alice in an entirely new world?

Paul W.S. Anderson: Yeah, Resident Evil – at its heart – is science fiction/action horror so I do feel like there has always been horror in there. But yes, that section was a bit different because it was terrifying on an entirely different level than these movies have been before.

Dread Central: I know you never want to put the cart before the horse or anything, but if everything goes well with Resident Evil: Retribution, do you see there being potential for one more movie that would tie up Alice’s story and this world?

Paul W.S. Anderson: I think we’ve always approached the Resident Evil movies with the idea that you can never take a sequel for granted because if this movie doesn’t work, then there won’t be a sequel so we always try to tell stories that have a satisfying ending. And I think that Retribution has a very good story conclusion to it, but of course there’s that little epigram at the end- THAT does suggest that there might be another movie. I mean, I would certainly like to make one because I feel like I would want to tie up this whole Resident Evil universe.

Dread Central: So has ‘evil’ really gone global then?

Paul W.S. Anderson: Evil really HAS gone global (laughs), and that’s what I wanted to do with this movie: to make a truly epic post-apocalyptic movie that we could make on a grand global scale. We now have apocalypses spread around the globe in Retribution so now is definitely the time for mankind to fight back big time, or otherwise it could mean the end.