George Homero's Resident Evil

[Aleff]

"THE FIRST OF THE BLACK HUEYS drops, hazardously, into a small clearing with barely enough space. Unable to land on the scrub-brush, it hovers ten feet off the ground. Its rotors CLIP TREE LEAVES as WESKER, BARRY, and TWO OTHER S.T.A.R.S. COMMANDOS jump out, heavily armed. The chopper lifts off, placed by HUEY NUMBER TWO."

Why does the George Romero version of Resident Evil script wasn't accepted, seeing that it's great, more faithful to the source, and he is recognized as the father of zombie movies? I can imagine a poster written: GEORGE A. ROMERO'S RESIDENT EVIL. Wouldn't it be a more successuful series of movies by now? And how does people get their hands on those scripts anyway?

[Darkmoon]

Well, I didn't like Romero's script that much, but it pays to keep in mind that it was only an early draft.

One possible reason they went with Anderson over Romero? Cash. Look at all the big, big scenes and sets Romero's movie would require, all the special effects it would take to do it, etc. Look at what the first RE movie cost. Another reason I can think why they did it was because the first RE movie could be slid into the game storywise (but then, the next three fuck that right up...)

The official story, and probably the real one, was that Capcom simply didn't like it, and felt that as a partial adaptation of the game it wouldn't be well received. Sadly, Anderson apparently convinced them otherwise for Apocalypse...

As for how it was gotten...I seem to recall Rombie asked for it, from Romero's people, and it was sent.

[Scream]

Wouldn't it be a more successuful series of movies by now?

Anderson can make more money from his movies so while Romero's version would probably be good for RE fans, it would be pretty crappy for Capcom. I like the script purely because it uses the original mansion - that would of been great to see on screen.

[Smiley]

Romero wrote his script in 98'. How many RE games were out by that time? At least two.

It makes the same random changes that Anderson makes in characters and events, but knowing what Anderson did with his movies it's hard not to appreciate what could have been simply because it wasn't written by Anderson.

Just throwing that out there. You know Romero, make Barry black if you need to. Just don't create a ten minute scene where telekinetic clone copies of your wife leap out of a window shooting everything in its path.

[jimmyjoejangles]

the script that was read on the dispatch podcast was pretty good I thought

[Wrathborne]

..Homero?

[News Bot]

first RE movie could be slid into the game storywise

Not at all.

I don't know why CAPCOM chose Anderson, but they regretted it. Didn't bother changing since the movies make quite a lot of money which CAPCOM gets to see since it's their license.

[Aleff]

..Homero?

I wrote "Homero" only in the title, I wrote it wrong, so what? It's written "Romero" all over the thread, do you think I don't know how to write his name correctly?

[AvP:Ryu]

The script RE RE Afterlife and Extinction
I lost the respect of Paul Anderson, after reading the scripts of these movies.
Warning: Scripts are capable of causing the stroke brain.
http://www.sendspace.com/file/8p6te6
http://www.sendspace.com/file/l3wd8n

[Rombie]

As for how it was gotten...I seem to recall Rombie asked for it, from Romero's people, and it was sent.

Kinda. Scripts find their way online all the time, but also scripts for films are often sold in physical form. Back almost 12 years or so, this was not long after it had come out that Romero was no longer directing the film, one of the guys on the old alt.games.resident-evil newsgroup (this is showing my age and how long I've been around when I'm citing USENet groups here) said he'd gotten a hold of an physical copy of the Romero script and was working on scanning the pages. One of the other guys on there took the scans and then used a program to just copy the text across by reading the image then I went through and cleaned it up.

About six months later, because we still weren't sure it was legit, I went to Romero's official site which he occassionally posted notes onto. The site was being run by one of his releatives, so I e-mailed the contact details and they answered me straight back and said they'd ask if it was his and Peter's draft and also for more info on what happened to why his version wasn't used.

The e-mail I got back a short while later confirmed the draft as indeed their draft and the only information gleemed on why it was dropped was that he wasn't even officially told anything, he'd actually found out he'd been dropped only because he stopped hearing from anyone involved and that there was discussion online that they were looking for someone else.

The latter I believe but it was a bit conflicting because later interviews I read with him he noted that the Germans in charge (Constantine Films) didn't seemingly like his draft from the start because they wanted a heavier war film. This wasn't imparted in the e-mail I got back, but considering the final Anderson film is like "Aliens But With Zombies" the latter war film statement almost seems correct as well.

[Wrathborne]

Lousy Krauts, I...Wait I'm mostly German.....Lousy Studio!

[Guest]

Both Anderson's and Romero's script are shit. Well, Romero's better, but it's a bit different (Barry is Black).

I would want a Mikami's idea for a Resident Evil movie.
Not the same as the game, but a side-story.

Like, Mikami got money for creating a game and not create that live-action intro, his budget was very low.
If he had some money, I'm pretty sure it would be a hell of a movie.

[Rombie]

Anderson's draft for the original film he made is better than the finished product mostly. It seemingly reads better and jumps around a little less than the original, plus the final battle being taken off the train actually seems better to me as well.

I don't think I could bring myself to read the scripts for the later films. The one thing the first (and second film as well) do which is good is that when you jump from one area to another you had the maps of The Hive (and Raccoon City, plus the cameras) appear to try and set and establishing shot for setting your concept of place. And so the last film thus far in the series was just horrid, as it went from "one scene" bad transistion "new scene" sometimes with glaring lapses in timing and continiunity because he had no cheat to get around getting from one location to the next. As I recall the worst is when they escape the prison tunnels, as they walk off it's into a out of focus shot that goes on too long and then immediately they arrive at the boats, or at least thats how I remember it because they didn't have the budget for them to be walking through the remains of a destroyed LA.

It as was as if he'd come along with a pile of "cool action scenes" and characters and then tried to find a way to tie them all together that made sense. Without an over-arching concept... it really didn't.

[Aleff]

Anderson's draft for the original film he made is better than the finished product mostly. It seemingly reads better and jumps around a little less than the original, plus the final battle being taken off the train actually seems better to me as well.

I don't think I could bring myself to read the scripts for the later films. The one thing the first (and second film as well) do which is good is that when you jump from one area to another you had the maps of The Hive (and Raccoon City, plus the cameras) appear to try and set and establishing shot for setting your concept of place. And so the last film thus far in the series was just horrid, as it went from "one scene" bad transistion "new scene" sometimes with glaring lapses in timing and continiunity because he had no cheat to get around getting from one location to the next. As I recall the worst is when they escape the prison tunnels, as they walk off it's into a out of focus shot that goes on too long and then immediately they arrive at the boats, or at least thats how I remember it because they didn't have the budget for them to be walking through the remains of a destroyed LA.

It as was as if he'd come along with a pile of "cool action scenes" and characters and then tried to find a way to tie them all together that made sense. Without an over-arching concept... it really didn't.

That last movie was trash. But I feel that the first one at least had some heart, like some scenes (train escape, etc. I don't remember the movie that much.) Pretty interesting insite on how the script was found, Rombie! Thanks