Milla Jovovich rejoins her husband/director Paul W. S. Anderson for the fifth film in the zombie/action fanchise, ‘Re5ident: Evil Retribution,’ due out this September. Perhaps not the most heralded series, the films have been very successful, grossing around $700 million combined on relatively modest budgets.
An official synopsis from Screen Gems hit the web today. The newest film deals with Alice’s (Jovavich) past:
The Umbrella Corporation’s deadly T-virus continues to ravage the Earth, transforming the global population into legions of the flesh eating Undead. The human race’s last and only hope, Alice (Milla Jovovich), awakens in the heart of Umbrella’s most clandestine operations facility and unveils more of her mysterious past as she delves further into the complex. Without a safe haven, Alice continues to hunt those responsible for the outbreak; a chase that takes her from Tokyo to New York, Washington, D.C. and Moscow, culminating in a mind-blowing revelation that will force her to rethink everything that she once thought to be true. Aided by newfound allies and familiar friends, Alice must fight to survive long enough to escape a hostile world on the brink of oblivion. The countdown has begun.
The film will mark the return of many fan favorites from the previous four movies. Most notable are Michelle Rodriguez and Oded Fehr, who’s characters were killed in earlier films. Also returning is Sienna Guillory as Jill Valentine. Whether these characters are “really” part of the story or appear in flashbacks is unclear. Absent will be Ali Larter who portrayed Claire Redfield in ‘Extinction’ and ‘Afterlife.’
The big question will be if the story of Alice, which has become more convoluted over the course of the films, will finally be resolved. A character invented for the film series that was not a part of the pioneering video game franchise, Jovovich’s Alice has been the one constant since the 2002 original. The role (along with ‘The Fifth Element’) has made Jovovich a genre star and a popular attraction on the convention circuit. She married Paul W. S. Anderson not long after her first turn as the super soldier/zombie slayer extrodinaire under Anderson’s direction.
Excited for the film? Time to wrap up the franchise? Don’t act like a T-Virus infected zombie, comment below!
