Rendezvous in ‘Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City’

Express News Service

It’s solely whereas speaking to Tom Hopper and Avan Jogia that I realise how huge the Resident Evil franchise has grow to be over the previous 20 years. The Milla Jovovich-led motion horror movie, Resident Evil, impressed by a Japanese online game of the identical identify, was launched in 2002, and has since spawned six characteristic movie installments, with the seventh title, Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, on the best way. The movies prevail independently, whereas the video video games proceed to get pleasure from a separate, devoted fan base. Both Tom and Avan are fairly inclined in the direction of the video games as nicely.

“I am a fan of the early games, but I’m not well-versed with the recent ones. As someone who grew up with the first few titles, it’s amazing how much the graphics have improved ever since I played them as a kid,” he notes. “The new games are scarier as well. When I was approached for the film, I remember seeing only the first and second film. My experience and association have been more with the games,” The Umbrella Academy actor provides.

Avan hops in to share his reminiscences related to the franchise. “I have so many childhood memories attached to Resident Evil 4, the game. I’m a fan…” he takes a quick pause, earlier than making a press release that encapsulates the evolution of the franchise. “The best thing about being a Resident Evil fan is, there are multiple eras to be closely associated with. The late 90s games, the late 2000s games, so on and so forth,” he provides.

Avan isn’t any stranger to zombie movies; he performed Berkeley, a pacifist who refuses to show to violence even in an apocalyptic world the place dying is imminent. In Raccoon City although, the tables have been turned. Avan reprises the franchise’s fan-favourite rookie police officer, Leon S Kennedy, and he’s part of a number of gory sequences. How does it really feel to be on the set of a zombie movie? “Well, it includes plenty of blood and guts, and if you’re fortunate, you don’t get drenched in it (laughs).

That would imply it’s a must to sit within the make-up room getting the zombie blood utilized over your face and hair,” he says. “I guess filmmakers want me to kill zombies. I have picked up a few tricks to survive in a zombie film as well; headshots are the key, but you shouldn’t use guns excessively. They are too loud and tend to draw attention; as far as zombie survival is concerned, you are much safer with something wild, a Kitano, perhaps.”

Tom, however, will probably be moving into the sneakers of Albert Wesker, one of many main antagonists within the Resident Evil universe, earlier essayed by a number of actors together with Shawn Roberts and Jason O’Mara. Tom, who will probably be essaying the youthful model of the character, nonetheless, admits he eschewed in search of inspiration from the actors who performed the half in earlier installments. Speaking of his method to the character, Hopper shares, “I by no means checked out different iterations of the character.

My focus has at all times been on Johannes Roberts’ (author and director) imaginative and prescient, and my job was to embody the brand new model introduced on the web page. The script is so uncooked and the characters, equally human and relatable. I aimed to encapsulate that essence. I’m conscious that there are completely different variations of the character from video games and movies; there’s one which’s much like Mr Smith from The Matrix, and my concept was to go in opposition to this model and break it. I wished to make him extra relatable. My efficiency needed to be extra than simply mannerisms; you possibly can simply fall for the lure of sounding like a man-made, darkish villain. I attempted to discover his villainous transformation by way of actions whereas sticking to the story.”

If each of them needed to persuade an individual alien to the Resident Evil universe to observe Welcome to Raccoon City, how would they pitch it? Tom shortly hops in, “What 2020 could have been!” “I can’t top that,” Avan provides, laughing.