Zach Cregger Takes On “Resident Evil” After the Oscar Shock of “Weapons”
Writer/director Zach Cregger has made a name for himself crafting original, striking horror films, from Barbarian to last year’s rousing, Oscar-nominated Weapons, which resulted in Amy Madigan’s thrilling win for Best Supporting Actress and has led to the greenlighting of a prequel centered on her bewitching, brutally remorseless Gladys.
This momentum brings us to Cregger’s upcoming film, an adaptation of the blockbuster Capcom video game Resident Evil, an interesting move for a man who has become one of Hollywood’s hottest directors through his original stories. In the project, Cregger is reimagining a title that has multiple big-screen iterations, and the first trailer reveals a film that feels very much like a Cregger original.
Cregger’s Resident Evil seeks to reinvent the franchise with a new twist to the story. The film follows Bryan (Austin Abrams), a medical courier who finds himself trapped in a nightmare of ghoulish proportions. Set over the horrifying course of a single night, Resident Evil will track Bryan’s desperate attempt to survive a zombie apocalypse.
“Over the last couple of decades, I have played a sh*t ton of Resident Evil,” Cregger said at CinemaCon this year, adding that the games are “so naturally cinematic. If you love the games, you will feel their influence everywhere in the movie.”
Abrams is joined in the cast by Zach Cherry, Kali Reis and Paul Walter Hauser. Cregger co-wrote with John Wick scribe Shay Hatten.
Check out the trailer below. Resident Evil arrives in theaters on September 17.
For more upcoming films from Sony Pictures, check out these stories:
Inside Composer Hildur Guðnadóttir’s Bone‑Crushing Score for “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple”
How Editor Jake Roberts Cut the Thrilling Iron Maiden Sequence in “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple”
Featured image: Zach Cregger on the set of “Weapons.” Courtesy Warner Bros.
