Resident Evil Afterlife Will be About Zombies and Stuff

By Nix – BeyondHollywood.com

Sony Screen Gems has released the official cast list and plot synopsis for the upcoming “Resident Evil: Afterlife” (via Dread Central), the fourth entry in the undead franchise, and guess what? It’ll star Alice (Milla Jovovich) and have zombies in it.

In a world ravaged by a virus infection, turning its victims into the Undead, Alice continues on her journey to find survivors and lead them to safety. Her deadly battle with the Umbrella Corporation reaches new heights, but Alice gets some unexpected help from an old friend. A new lead that promises a safe haven from the Undead leads them to Los Angeles, but when they arrive the city is overrun by thousands of Undead and Alice and her comrades are about to step into a deadly trap.

Wentworth Miller of “Prison Break” fame, Norman Yeung and Kacey Barnfield will be joining returning castmembers Jovovich, Ali Larter, and Spencer Locke. Miller will play Chris Redfield, the brother of Larter’s Claire character, and a member of the S.T.A.R.S. Bravo team. Shawn Roberts will play Albert Wesker, a rogue company man with powers that rival Alice’s.

Paul W.S. Anderson returns to direct the first 3D installment in the franchise, which is set for a August 27, 2010 release.

Milla Jovovich

Ali Larter

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‘Silent Hill’ Writer and Producer Duo Return for Sequel

From AceShowBiz.com

With screenwriter Roger Avary and producer Samuel Hadida coming on board ‘Silent Hill 2’, Davis Films plans to kick off principal photography after ‘Resident Evil: Afterlife’.

Roger Avary

Familiar faces from “Silent Hill” are making their return to the video game adaptation. According to The Hollywood Reporter, screenwriter Roger Avary and producer Samuel Hadida have come on board “Silent Hill 2”, the sequel to the 2006 horror thriller. The two signed on while no director has been attached to the project.

Confirmation of Avary’s return was in contrast to his 2007 remark to Shock Till You Drop. At the time, he indicated that he won’t be making a return should director Christophe Gans refuse to return to the director’s chair for the second time. “I’m not gonna do Silent Hill 2,” he said. “If Christophe’s not gonna do it, I’m not…”

Roger Avary is known for his work on Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction”. His writing credits include “The Rules of Attraction” and “Beowulf”. He is writing for videogame adaptation of “Return to Castle Wolfenstein”. Samuel Hadida, in the meantime, has produced such movies as “Resident Evil: Extinction” and “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus”.

Samuel Hadida

The original “Silent Hill” centers on a young mother desperate to find a cure for her only child’s illness. Ignoring the protests of her husband, she travels to an abandoned town in search of answers and finds supernatural occurrences taking place there. It stars Radha Mitchell and Jodelle Ferland. The sequel is expected to begin shooting in 2010 after “Resident Evil: Afterlife”, which is currently preparing to film.

‘Death Race’ Gets a Prequel

By Robert Falconer – CinemaSpy.com

Natalie Martinez

Impact Pictures is apparently working on the prequel to Paul WS Anderson’s Death Race. The production company has already hired Tony Giglio to write a script, based on a story by Anderson.
According to ShockTillYouDrop, the script is said to delve into the past of the mangled driver known as Frankenstein, who was originally played by the late David Carradine in the 1975 film Death Race 2000 and voiced by Carradine in Anderson’s recent Death Race remake.

Anderson will oversee the prequel as soon as he has completed work on Resident Evil: Afterlife, on which Giglio is serving as a second unit director.

Last year’s Death Race was a box office disappointment, earning only $36M domestically, and costing $45M to make. Foreign markets boosted the global take to $75M, likely a big part of the decision to move forward with a prequel

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James Cameron confirms Battle Angel Alita, hints at Avatar 2

By David Bentley – CoventryTelegraph.net

August 21 is Avatar Day, when 15 minutes of James Cameron’s 3D sci-fi movie will be screened in all IMAX venues so everyone has chance to see what all the fuss is about and judge whether it is going to change the landscape of cinema forever.

It looks like it could do just that, because the film is already beginning to pave the way for new projects.

Cameron is planning to convert Titanic into 3D next year, and possibly also Terminator 2, while his 3D company is to work with director Paul W.S. Anderson on Resident Evil: Afterlife which starts filming in September.

And he revealed at Comic-Con that his next new film project is likely to be the long-awaited Battle Angel Alita, based on the popular manga series originally published in Jump magazine.

Cameron has now elaborated in a further interview, saying the technology developed for Avatar makes Battle Angel Alita much more feasible to achieve.

The comic book is set in a 26th-century, dystopian USA and centres on a discarded cyborg rescued from a scrapyard by a scientist called Daisuke Ido.

Ido revives and rebuilds the cyborg, who has no memory of her previous life but finds she has an intuitive knowledge of martial arts and becomes a hunter-warrior. She becomes involved in investigating the mysteries of a city called Tiphares that floats above the scrapyard .

Cameron told MTV: “I think Battle Angel will be very straightforward based on what we know right now [from Avatar].

“There are actually three technologies we designed from scratch for this movie. One was the fusion 3D camera system, which would have a big role in Battle Angel because it’s more live-action by proportion. The other one is the facial performance capture, which would allow us to create Alita that way.”

And he said the third and most important technological advancement was probably the Simulcam – “a real-time tracking system that used the motion-capture infrastructure on a live action stage, so that when I look through the eyepiece of my 3D camera, I see the set extensions as they will be.”

He added: “We can even bring in CG characters in real-time, meaning actor-to-actor, meaning somebody’s acting a CG character over here and I’m seeing him in my eyepiece interacting with an actor in a live-action shot.

“That’s never happened before,” he said. “For Battle Angel that’ll be critical, or for any other film – maybe Avatar 2 – whatever else we film.”

While Battle Angel Alita has been in the pipeline for some considerable time, it’s the first time I’ve heard mention of an Avatar 2.

Does this mean Avatar will leave the door open for a sequel? Do we detect an Avatar trilogy being planned by Cameron or studio executives? It should certainly be a faster (and less expensive) process the next time round, now that all the research and development has been done.

It’s also worth considering whether more films would benefit from being in 3D and from using Cameron’s advanced CGI technology.

New ‘Resident Evil’ Laughs at Rigor Mortis, Gains Momentum

Peter Hall – HorrorSquad.com

   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?