Umbrella Chronicles

Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles, or simply Umbrella Chronicles, is the working title of an upcoming Resident Evil film produced by Constantin Film and Davis Film. It is presently unknown how it stands in relation to the 2021 film, Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, whether being a prequel or sequel. No writer or director is yet confirmed to be attached.

Summary[]

As the film is in early development, it should be noted that the Production Weekly entry may not reflect the actual story being written.^{[note 2]}

Cast[]

Due to the recent high-traffic and media attention, the Resident Evil Wiki instructs editors to attach sources to actor credits to stem the flow of misinformation.

Development[]

Early discussions[]

With the evolving climate of video game media, Constantin recognised that the ''Resident Evil'' IP could stand to benefit from appealing to existing fans of the games rather than a general audience as had been pursued with the Paul W.S. Anderson film series and likewise by other producers of video game adaptations.^[1]

Welcome to Raccoon City went through a number of revisions in the lead-up to filming due to budget cuts and unforeseen production setbacks, leading to the excising of various VFX-heavy monsters such as Hunters and the Tyrant from the story, while Rebecca Chambers and Barry Burton, slated to be killed in the Spencer Mansion, were replaced with Enrico Marini and Richard Aiken who would have limited screen time.^[2] Roberts consoled fans with the hopes they would be able to appear in future films regardless.^[3] Initial plans for a follow-up to Welcome to Raccoon City were considered during initial production, with Roberts teasing Resident Evil CODE:Veronica and Resident Evil 4 as potential routes for a sequel.^[4]

In several interviews prior to the release of Welcome to Raccoon City, actors Robbie Amell and Kaya Scodelario expressed interest in returning for future films, with the latter hoping the character of Claire Redfield would be sidelined less than in the games.^[5][6] Amell has expressed his desire to "punch a boulder" with director Johannes Roberts also suggesting the infamous scene be included in a future film.^[7][8]

Following the release of Welcome to Raccoon City, in June 2022, actor Tom Hopper confirmed that Sony and Constantin Film were "very happy" with the film's performance, which theatrically earned back nearly twice its budget against a spike of COVID shutdowns^[9] followed by a successful digital release^[10] becoming the top-rented film on VUDU in its opening weekend^[11] and going on to earn a modest $3.6 million from physical home video sales. Hopper stated he would happily return to the role, saying "It ended in a way that I was like, 'Oh, I can get used to this guy.' Also, too, where he's going, I think he can be very interesting".^[12]

By October of that year, the film was one of several projects confirmed by executive producer Martin Moszkowicz to be in development alongside another television series which would have replaced Netflix's series cancelled two months prior, though the exact details were not given, and Moszkowicz was sceptical of films being released for theatres if not projected to be successful.^[13]

Pre-production[]

On 3 April 2023, Raccoon HG Film Productions Inc., the same shell company for financing Welcome to Raccoon City, received a grant of $2 million dollars from the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation (NOHFC) for the production of "Umbrella Chronicles". Greater Sudbury was picked as the principal film location, with Northern Ontario Film Studios recorded on the Production Weekly bulletin as their headquarters.^{[14][15][16][17]} By April a production designer and design crew were already at work visualising the script.^[18]

Sources[]

notes

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