Resident Evil (2002): 10 Things You Didn’t Know
By Jeremy Dick
Night of the Living Dead – The Walter Reade Organization/Continental Distributing
2. Director George A. Romero originally wrote the script
When Sony was first booting up the feature film adaptation for Resident Evil, they knew they needed a good writer and director. As zombies weren’t exactly mainstream yet, they went to the only person famous for making zombie movies— George A. Romero. All horror fans know him well for doing classic zombie movies like Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, and Day of the Dead.
Romero agreed to write the script, and turned one in fairly close in story to that of the game. It featured popular characters like Jill Valentine and Chris Redfield investigating the zombie-filled mansion. Other favorites like Ada Wong, Barry Burton, and Albert Wesker would also appear. The ending is said to be similar to the “BEST” ending you can get in the original video game.
But for whatever reason, Sony didn’t like Romero’s script, and they fired him from the production. Romero himself believes they didn’t like his script because they didn’t understand the spirit of the game. He feels they wanted to make it more of a “war movie” while Romero’s script is more horror-oriented.