Writer-director Zach Cregger has two majorly successful movies under his belt with Barbarian and Weapons, and his next project is an adaptation of Capcom’s Resident Evil series. Not a whole lot is known about Cregger’s take on the series, but he’s now shared some more details, including how the movie has a “way bigger budget than Weapons” and what his vision is for it.
Speaking to his fellow Whitest Kids U’Know castmate Sam Brown, Cregger said he’s in prep for the Resident Evil movie now and, despite the bigger budget than Weapons, he’s in the midst of racing to find solutions to how to get things done. He said that despite Resident Evil having a massively larger budget than any of the comedy sketches that he and Brown made together in the past, some of the vibes are the same.
“We’re in prep, and we’re already like, ‘How are we going to do anything? We’re drowning!'” he said.
Weapons had a reported production budget of $38 million. That’s only $18 million more than the $20 million fee that Cregger was said to have been paid to write and direct the Resident Evil movie.
As for his vision for Resident Evil, Cregger said he’s aiming to capture the feeling of “dread” that the games are known for, and the feeling that, in his estimation, was missing from Paul W.S. Anderson’s string of Resident Evil movies.
“I love those games. I’ve played Resident Evil 4 I don’t know how many times all the way through. Many. My favorite thing about the Resident Evil games is that feeling that they give you that happens in every game where you’re like, ‘OK, I have to go down this long dark passage, I know something horrible is going to happen to me, I have one shotgun shell. And I have no choice.’ That dread is so great,” he said.
“I haven’t seen the [earlier] movies, but they don’t seem to promise that feeling. So I wanted to write a story that would just really lean into that. Honor the games–be true to the lore of what’s going on. But I’m not telling any of the stories of the games. It’s a separate story that just happens to exist in that territory.”
Anderson’s six Resident Evil movies collectively made more than $1 billion, despite not being very well-received critically. A seventh movie, Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, came out in 2021 and made $42 million worldwide.
Cregger previously said of his take on Resident Evil, “It has nothing to do with any of the other Resident Evil movies. If I do my job, it will feel fresh and edgy and weird.”
Weapons opened in theaters on August 8 and made $70 million for its first weekend, which is more than the $45 million that Barbarian made during its entire theatrical run.
As for the Resident Evil game series, Resident Evil Requiem is coming in February 2026.