One of the talking points surrounding the upcoming Resident Evil movie is that director Zach Cregger took an original idea and slapped the Resident Evil name on it. That’s not true, Cregger has said, and now he’s shared more of his thought process as it relates to some of the blowback from fans of the games.
He told IGN that, in retrospect, he feels it was “naive” to think that fans of the games would immediately embrace his pitch for his Resident Evil movie.
“I thought fans of these games, like me, would be thrilled that somebody was coming along and turning Resident Evil into a survival horror movie. I was like, ‘That’s great.’ I did not really appreciate the sentiment that, ‘We’ve been waiting forever for Leon’s story.’ And I appreciate that, and I’m sorry that’s not the story I’m bringing. I get it, I understand the frustration,” he said. “I understand it so well because I haven’t seen the earlier [Resident Evil] movies, because they don’t look like the Resident Evil that I love, so how could I be frustrated with fans who have that same attitude?”
Cregger went on to say he hopes fans of the game see his movie “regardless of their skepticism or their disappointment” that he’s not re-telling a story from the games. He said he hopes fans of the games “feel seen” when they watch the movie and see “all of the love for the games that are in this movie.”
