Milla Jovovich on RE Fanboys & RE Movies

[xfactor]

There's a short interview with Milla Jovovich over at CVG where she discusses about the RE movies.

Here's a summary of the article:
- Milla Jovovich demanded her superhuman power to remain intact in RE Afterlife, but it was Paul [WS Anderson] who persuaded her to change her mind. In the end, they settled for a compromise where Alice will have her power stripped but still gets to be a badass in the movie.
- She originally requested to be cast as Jill Valentine in the 1st movie because she want to surprise her brother, who was a RE fan. It was again Paul Anderson who convinced her that it wouldn't work because it will stop them from reaching out to the audience who ain't fan of the game series, and that they don't want to get stuck using Capcom's storyline.
- Regarding the fans backlash, she talks about how there are like 15 people in the world that passionately hates her. When she tell them to write the script themselves instead, she claims that these people will then argue and disagree themselves.
- Alice was created so non-fans can jump into the movie without knowing the history of the character.
- There are many fans of Alice and the RE movies from what she sees on her twitter.
- She loves being a part of the RE movies because she "was always a fan of really strong female characters growing up"

CVG

[Wrathborne]

Wow. I'm one of the 15(More so her husband than her though), and yes I've already written a script..and re-written it...and re-written it...and am re-writing it little by little again. It takes a lot of time to get something right but if its something you care about its worth it

Its worth even more if you can prove a point with it too

I will always sneer at these films, and argue with people who like them, but I wont stop them from liking them...though I will needle them a little for it

[Inferno04]

- Milla Jovovich demanded her superhuman power to remain intact in RE Afterlife, but it was Paul [WS Anderson] who persuaded her to change her mind. In the end, they settled for a compromise where Alice will have her power stripped but still gets to be a badass in the movie.
Oh so that horseshit was HER fault. =D

- She originally requested to be cast as Jill Valentine in the 1st movie because she want to surprise her brother, who was a RE fan. It was again Paul Anderson who convinced her that it wouldn't work because it will stop them from reaching out to the audience who ain't fan of the game series, and that they don't want to get stuck using Capcom's storyline.
Lol because a Mary Sue hogging up screentime was so much better.

- Regarding the fans backlash, she talks about how there are like 15 people in the world that passionately hates her. When she tell them to write the script themselves instead, she claims that these people will then argue and disagree themselves.
Someone already wrote a far better script that was shot down. His name was George FUCKING Romero.

- Alice was created so non-fans can jump into the movie without knowing the history of the character.
You know people jumped into the game not knowing anything about Chris, Jill, S.T.A.R.S or Umbrella, and we turned out okay.

- There are many fans of Alice and the RE movies from what she sees on her twitter.
And a good majority of users on Twitter don't have taste beyond the most vapid of pop culture.

- She loves being a part of the RE movies because she "was always a fan of really strong female characters growing up"
AHAHAHAHAAAAAA...oh she's serious.

Jesus Fucking Christ I didn't think this man's ego extended to his wife too, what a match made in Heaven. These films are great for camp value and laughs, but to take it this seriously and to delusion yourself into thinking that people find it amazing is just sad. Any respect I had for Milla is now gone. :/

[Pikminister]

Here, here.

I seriously question the relevance of this news story.... Beating Milla into a bloody pulp... yet again?

It's getting old.

[Andyfer_Ruu]

Wow. I'm one of the 15(More so her husband than her though), and yes I've already written a script..and re-written it...and re-written it...and am re-writing it little by little again. It takes a lot of time to get something right but if its something you care about its worth it

Its worth even more if you can prove a point with it too

I will always sneer at these films, and argue with people who like them, but I wont stop them from liking them...though I will needle them a little for it

Im afraid even if your script was posted online or made into a movie, it will be hated just as much. =P
It seems fans cannot be pleased, nor do they know what they really want (especially on this forum) This place is just filled with people complaining all the time xD. I remember times when games have been changed because of fans complaining...and still the fans wernt happy.
It's something that is said in the movie buissness, do not let the fans take over the movie, they will end up destroying it.

[Mr. Spencer]

Only 15?

[Darkmoon]

The games didn't really change because the fans complained, but because the reviews starting comming back negative. And it was mostly a control issue. A lot of folks couldn't handle the tank controls, and that made RE a niche game. The problem isn't the new control system...Dead Space shows that, given the right enemies and enviroment, those can be scary. The problem was they stripped out all the horror to make it more action and friendly for the average gamer.

As for this...yeah, there are plenty of fans of the movies. I doubt many people think it's a great series, but some people enjoy mindless, shut down your brain action flicks. I don't, and a lot of RE fans were expecting...more. So it hasn't proved popular among the game community, but outside of there it seems to be doing well. It's odd, but the game community and movie fans seem to be two distinctly different groups with relatively little overlap.

And I don't hate her or Anderson. I do think they need to actually learn how to do a good story. The fact they ended up writting the script as a series of compromises just screams as to where some of the problems have come from.

Ironically, didn't she report a while back, before the movie, that she was the one who demanded her powers get removed and Anderson was arguing to keep them?

[Vogue_Dirge]

Milla is flawless. She's an actress and does her job.

And guess what? She's laughing all the way to the mutha fuckin' bank.

I think the movies are fun, and actually enjoy them for what they are.

[Darkmoon]

I would hardly say flawless. If her arguing forced script changes, then there are some real issues. She also looks like a twig too often.

[Shadow Stalker]

- Regarding the fans backlash, she talks about how there are like 15 people in the world that passionately hates her. When she tell them to write the script themselves instead, she claims that these people will then argue and disagree themselves.

Milla's got a point in my opinion regarding her claim that the RE fanbase will spend mostly arguing and disagreeing with each other if we were to attempt to write our own Resident Evil movie.

Because from what I've read on the TV Tropes & Idioms website long ago, the Resident Evil franchise has been described as having an Unpleasable Fanbase.

It's been a while since I've last read it, so it may have changed.

[Wrathborne]

Im afraid even if your script was posted online or made into a movie, it will be hated just as much. =P
It seems fans cannot be pleased, nor do they know what they really want (especially on this forum) This place is just filled with people complaining all the time xD. I remember times when games have been changed because of fans complaining...and still the fans wernt happy.
It's something that is said in the movie buissness, do not let the fans take over the movie, they will end up destroying it.

Actually...I was a film student in college, I graduated with an AA in film production and almost went for a minor in animation but was drained from college and went into the working world and died inside. Reality does that to ya.

However I never stopped rewriting this script for some reason, though I've taken a long hiatus from it since I've changed, and when the writer changes the work changes.

There is another thing about the movie business though, especially concerning adaptations of any kind, video games primarily.

Hollywood HATES the video game industry, and that's because its competition. Video games are on their way to overshadow film, and Hollywood knows this.

That's why whenever they get the rights to adapt a video game into a movie, the adaptation has very little to do with the games or usually just focuses on the common elements or settings. That's it.

Hollywood wants to take the name brand for itself and so something 'better'(bigger and dumber) with it.

The resident evil films are a perfect example of this, primarily because in all these films combined one could re-name all the monsters they've used (maybe also modify them a smidge), re-name the T-virus, Raccoon city and Umbrella, and re-name the characters and change the series name to like 'Genesis: Chaos'...Its now a completely different series of films.

They've used so little of the source material that just by re-naming people, places, and settings that if changed its generic Hollywood scif fi action fest.

Same goes for Mario brothers, Alone in the dark, House of the dead(not that it had any real character or story to it) and Silent Hill.

They'll take the look, the monsters, even some of the settings but they'll never take whats important, and that's the source material.

One could argue that if you use the games story and characters that people wont want to see it because they've already played the game and there's no point in just re-making all the cut scenes with professional actors and special effects. This is true.

However, this isn't a problem. It just takes a little more planning.

I figured out about 5 years back that what you do in this case is take about 60% of the games source material. This includes the games story, characters, settings, blah blah blah... What do you do with the remaining 40%

Easy. Character development. Lets face it, most video game characters don't have much of if any personality, its only really been about the last decade that more and more personality has been thrown in the mix. The Silent Hill games have taken much more advantage of this than Resident Evil games, and that's primarily why their characters tend to stand out more. James Sunderland Especially.

I'm not saying that all 40% of what remains is and should be used on character development, basically the 40% of whats left is for the writer to play with as they see fit.

Anderson is doing the opposite of this, more to the extreme really. Hes taking about 10-20% of the source material and using the other 80% to do whatever the fuck he wants. Even though his films make money, they're never given good reviews, they're always hated(and loved..I know) and they lower the IQ of everyone who watches them.

But in the end they make money, and that's what Hollywood wants to keep seeing.

'Do not let the fans take over it, they will destroy it' Yes there is truth to this but at the same time If the fans didn't take some control, then we would have had more Schumacher Batman films, the lord of the rings films would have all been a scifi adventure with robots, and we certainly wouldn't have a 4th Indiana Jones film that was made for 8 year olds.

But enough of my rambling sorry, got caught up in the moment

[rehunk88]

I hope she dies soon xD 4 re movies with alice is 4 to many!

[Canas Renvall]

^ Wow, wishing death to someone because they're in a movie series.

The fact that she wanted to keep her powers is kinda meh, but other than that, I don't mind. The fact that people hate her because she took a role that makes her millions of dollars is kinda funny too. I know I would do it.

I like to think that people don't hate Milla, they hate Alice. Milla is a very good actress, as seen in stuff like The Fifth Element, or Dazed and Confused, and people are just mad that she took on a role that people think interferes with their series (surprise, it doesn't, as the storyline has nothing to do with the RE games, but whatever ).

Then again, this is the Internet. Logic died at the Firefox start page.

[Darkmoon]

People using Chrome has more logic!

But, agreed, mostly. I like Milla as an actress, but hate the character...and wishing death on anyone who hasn't done something evil, like touch kids, is kinda odd.

[Agent_Wong]

Me am using Chrome...*scratches head*

While I wouldn't wish death on anyone personally for the above stated reasons, I would however wish death upon their careers (although that would never happen either). The only reason being, that this garbage she's barfing out on her twatter page is utter flibbity flab. I'll bet she's in the shower and Paul logged on her page.

In the end we have to hate the entity that gave them the right to make the movie in the first place. That's right ladies and germs Crapcom.

EDIT: I know this isn't the right place but while I'm here (don't have the spare change for a cab to another sub-forum) why the hell doesn't Castlevania show up in my little doohickey down there \/. I played and finished it before I started Tomb Raider....