Zach Cregger, best known as the director of the horror movie Barbarian and a member of the comedy group The Whitest Kids You Know, is working on a Resident Evil reboot movie.
The Hollywood Reporter says that a bidding war has erupted over who will distribute Cregger’s take on the classic Capcom survival horror game franchise with Cregger set to both write and direct the reboot. According to THR, four studios are bidding for the distribution rights, including Netflix and Warner Bros.
Cregger is best known for his 2022 horror movie Barbarian about a woman who books a stay at a rental house only to discover it’s hiding a horrifying secret. Cregger’s already finished work on his next film, Weapons, which sources say has been testing very high with audiences.
You can read our Barbarian review here.
This will be the second reboot of the Resident Evil franchise on screen. There were a series of six Resident Evil movies directed by Paul W.S. Anderson and starring Milla Jovovich. While not strictly adhering to the games, these movies did go on to gross $1.2 billion worldwide. A reboot titled Welcome to Raccoon City from director Johannes Roberts was released in 2021 that tried to be more faithful to the games, but still couldn’t match the quality of Capcom’s game series.
Like the previous films by Anderson and Welcome to Raccoon City, Constantin Film will produce the upcoming reboot alongside PlayStation Productions. Sony started up PlayStation Productions in 2019 to help oversee the translation of some of its games into movies including Uncharted starring Tom Holland, Grand Turismo, The Last of Us TV series, and Twisted Metal.
Upcoming PlayStation Production pictures include Until Dawn, Days Gone, Ghost of Tsushima, Gravity Rush, Helldivers, Horizon Zero Dawn, and an Uncharted sequel. There’s also a God of War TV show in the works as well as a Ghost of Tsushima anime series recently announced.
Matt Kim is IGN’s Senior Features Editor.
