Resident Evil Director Talks Games

Paul Anderson was one of the early directors to follow James Cameron into 3D live action film-making. The director already has two features under his belt with Resident Evil: Afterlife and The Three Musketeers, which opens this week.

He's currently filming Resident Evil: Retribution in 3D and has committed himself to 3D film-making for every project moving forward, including a Buck Rogers big screen film.

Anderson is one of a growing number of Hollywood directors who grew up playing video games. And he's parlayed that love of gaming into the most successful video game-to-film adaptations of all time.

Retribution, which opens September 14, 2012, is the fifth film based on the bestselling Capcom franchise. The director talks about The Three Musketeers, his love of gaming, and why he's interested in creating his own games in this exclusive interview.

IGN: What's a favorite video game memory from your youth?

Anderson: My first encounter with the world of video games always sticks in my mind. Every summer my grandparents used to take me on holiday to Scarborough, which is a small British coastal town where it would usually rain for two weeks.

That was a British summer holiday. I would go and play in the arcades and at that point they were all pinball arcades. I love pinball, but I remember going to one of the arcades one day and this big black box appeared in the corner and it was the first Space Invaders game.

Years later when I saw 2001 and those apes were huddled around that Monolith, it took me back to that moment where all these kids were huddled around this monolithic black box that played Space Invaders. Those original video game consoles were huge and I remember lining up for hours to play it. I was so obsessed with it that I spent all of my money, including my bus fare, and had to walk home.

IGN: What are your thoughts on how far games have come since then?

Anderson: Now when you look back at Space Invaders and the level of the graphics and everything it's kind of embarrassing, but back then it was mind blowing stuff. It was really something new that no one ever envisioned. I'm very much the first generation that encountered video games. They definitely left a huge impression me and I've been involved with them ever since.

IGN: What have you been playing recently that's impressed you?

I have been playing absolutely nothing. I have had no time. We went straight from the last Resident Evil into Musketeers and then straight from the Musketeers into the new Resident Evil. It's been a big challenge to man these movies so I've had very, very little time. I did play the Zombie level in Call of Duty: Black Ops recently which was great fun. Shooting Nazi zombies was just great.

IGN: And that game is actually in 3D for anyone who has a 3D TV.

Anderson: And if I had time to go to the store and buy a 3D TV I'd have one...if I ever went home. That's the other thing. My house increasing feels like a nice hotel I go and visit for a couple of days a year.


IGN: When it comes to Three Musketeers, how is your interpretation different from past films?

Anderson: What everyone takes away from the Three Musketeers is the all for one and one for all. People associate it with being a classic story of friendship, love and honor. Those are the things that have remained completely intact in our adaptation, the interrelationship between D'Artagnan and the musketeers, the doomed love of Athos from a lady, the young teenage love of D'Artagnan and Constance. All of those strengths of the book are strengths for the movie, as well.

Where we've changed things is just in the execution of some of the action scenes in an attempt to make it for a 21st Century audience.

IGN: How did filming Resident Evil: Afterlife in 3D help prepare you for The Three Musketeers?

Anderson: Resident Evil was like making my first movie. It was like I re-learned everything. I went into Three Musketeers with a much stronger skill set in 3D than I had before, that's for sure. And the technology has changed. There are new pieces of equipment available that were never available when we did Resident Evil. We're on the cutting edge of technology, so it's going to change and it's going to get better, and better, and better.