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Paul WS Anderson, director and producer of the Resident Evil film series, has criticised directors of other game movie adaptations, claiming that these people simply don’t understand the source material they’re working with.
“A lot of video game movies are made by directors who don’t know the video games they are based on from a hole in the head,” Anderson told MCV. “They don’t do justice to the games, they don’t immerse themselves in the games, they don’t understand what people liked from the games. And that is the wrong approach and clearly those movies don’t work.
“You can fool people once, you know. I was excited to see the Tomb Raider movie the first time it came out. I saw it, it wasn’t very good, I wasn’t very excited to go and see the second film. I think with Resident Evil it is very telling that each movie has done better than the one before.”
Unlike Simon West, the director of Tomb Raider films, Anderson claims to knows the games he’s working with.
“Despite what a lot of haters on the internet might say, I love the Resident Evil games. And these movies are made with a huge knowledge and real passion for the games.”
The Resident Evil film series is the most successful video game adaptation to date, and has generated ‘billions’ in revenue since the first film in 2002. Since then, there have been a further three films, with a fifth due next near.
Anderson believes that to have a successful adaptation, you need to separate the narrative from that of the game.
“You are also dealing with substantially different timelines,” he said. “You can make a good movie in a year. You can’t make a good video game in a year. So it is very difficult for movie and game companies to really work together, especially when you can’t even guarantee that the game is going to come out when you say it is going to.”
The Resident Evil series is currently celebrating its 15th anniversary, with rumours pointing to a Resident Evil 6 reveal at the Tokyo Game Show.
Resident Evil: Retribution, the next film in the series, which will see Anderson direct and Milla Jovovich reprise her role as Alice, is currently scheduled for a September 2012 release.