Movies
‘Resident Evil: The Final Chapter’ to End the Franchise!
It’s been no secret that Paul W.S. Anderson’s forthcoming Resident Evil: The Final Chapter is said to be the final entry in the Resident Evil franchise. Since his return to the director’s chair with the 2010 Resident Evil: Afterlife and the 2012 Resident Evil: Retribution, Anderson has stated that this would be a “trilogy” to end Alice’s adventures.
With shooting set to commence this fall in South Africa, Ali Larter was confirmed to return as Claire Redfield in the new Resident Evil, which Sony Screen Gems has slated for release on January 27, 2017.
Resident Evil: The Final Chapter picks up after the events of Resident Evil: Retribution, as the Project Alice (Milla Jovovich) is forced to race against time before the villainous Red Queen attempts to destroy the final remnants of humanity.
Retribution left off at our Nation’s capitol, with the zombie army attacking the White House.
In an interview with IGN, Larter confirmed that the next Resident Evil will in fact be “the final chapter”.
“I know it is,” said Larter. “We are not allowed to say one thing. I am held to secrecy, but what I can tell you is that the script is amazing. They’re really wrapping up the whole series, so that just makes it a little more poignant. To be able to come back and reprise my role as Claire and my relationship with Alice, with Umbrella Corp. — you know, I’m excited to get back in it. I think the fans are just going to be beyond excited.”
She continues: “How many movies have this kind of fanbase and get to be made six times?
“I think that’s extraordinary. It’s a total testament to [series star] Milla [Jovovich] and Paul. I’m so grateful to them, that they chose me to be a part of it halfway through, and they’ve kept me along for the ride. I love that it’s not seven men and one woman. I mean, these are two women, and they’re not competing with each other. You know, there are such easy clichés these two could fall into, but this is definitely a female power movie.”
Constantin Film’s Robert Kulzer, Impact Pictures’ Jeremy Bolt, Davis-Films’ Samuel Hadida, and Anderson are producing and Martin Moszkowicz serving as executive producer.
The trailer for Ti West’s upcoming adaptation of A Christmas Carol raised a lot of eyebrows when it dropped earlier this week. While plenty of folks initially dismissed Ebenezer as a derivative project meant to cash in on the recent wave of unnecessary prequels that expand the backstory of beloved characters (such as 2023’s Wonka), Charles Dickens’ original novel already made a point of exploring Ebenezer Scrooge’s origins in detail – meaning that this new film is likely just a particularly faithful adaptation of the source material under a different name.
Couple that with the fact that the movie is being helmed by a genuine horror auteur and I think it’s safe to say that the latest iteration of the first modern ghost story is in good hands.
That being said, one detail that immediately jumped out at me during the brief teaser (other than a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it nod to Johnny Depp’s iconic bedroom death scene from the original A Nightmare on Elm Street) is the fact that many of Ebenezer’s ghosts appear to have been directly lifted from the iconic John Leech illustrations that accompanied the first edition of Dickens’ novel.
Here are a couple of stills from the trailer compared to the original artwork:
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
The Phantoms in ‘A Christmas Carol’ and ‘Ebenezer’
Marley’s Ghost in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
Mainly working with old-school wood and steel engravings that would later be transferred to print, Leech was instrumental in crafting the iconic look of history’s most influential phantoms – especially since Dickens is said to have been deeply involved with the creation of these so-called “comic illustrations.”
And since the novel is commonly said to have popularized spiritualism in Victorian England, much of the ghostly iconography that we still see in genre media to this very day (including some of Ti West’s previous films) can be traced back to the author’s partnership with Leech.
Ebenezer won’t be the first A Christmas Carol adaptation to borrow heavily from these designs, but I can appreciate how Ti West is incorporating an important part of horror history into his latest film.
Ebenezer will be available in theaters starting November 13.
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