As Paul WS Anderson looks forward to wrapping up the Resident Evil movie series with one final chapter, and his backers at Constantin Film wonder how to move on from their DOA Mortal Instruments movie adaptation, it seems like TV will become the next evolution for both projects.
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The MIP TV festival is underway in Cannes, and Constantin’s Executive Board Chairman Martin Moszkowicz held a presentation to unveil Constantin’s slate. The first project is crime series Shades of Guilt, and then next year will bring a re-adaptation of Mortal Instruments, starting over as if the film didn’t exist. The Client List’s Ed Decter will be the showrunner.
For Resident Evil, we’ll have to wait for Anderson and Milla Jovovich to take care of their unfinished, 3D, big screen business first. It isn’t known just yet if the show that follows will be a sequel to the movies or a reboot, though Anderson knowing that the series is coming should allow him to tie everything up with a bow or plant some seeds accordingly.
Meanwhile, the rather Resident Evil-alike Underworld may also be coming to TV. I guess catsuited action heroines vs. supernatural monsters is a new trend.
Series co-creator, producer and sometime writer-director Len Wiseman spilled the beans to IGN, and you can hear his comments in this video.
The key points: One Underworld movie in the works is intended to be “more of a spin off”; Kate Beckinsale may “possibly” be back for another movie yet; there’s also a TV series “expanding that universe.”
In short, they’re taking Underworld into the “universe franchise” direction that seems to have Hollywood in a vice-like grip right now. Marvelous.
Can Underworld sustain this kind of sprawl? I’d be surprised. It felt very much to many, I think, that the series was running out of steam. Though who knows – perhaps shaking things up a bit and diversifying will actually give the concept a shot in the arm.
