Q&A with Paul W.S. Anderson, Milla Jovovich and Ali Larter at ‘Resident Evil: Afterlife’ trailer premiere

The 2010 edition of WonderCon stormed San Francisco Friday, and one of the main events was the premiere screening of the new trailer for Paul W.S. Anderson’s new film Resident Evil: Afterlife, which will hit theaters in RealD 3D Sept. 10, 2010. Anderson, Ali Larter and Milla Jovovich stopped by the AMC Metreon to introduce the preview and answer some questions, and here is what they had to say. The trailer, by the way, will be online very soon.

Question: When did you know this was going to be a 3D film?

Paul W.S. Anderson: Almost a year ago, today actually, James Cameron was very kind enough to screen a large chunk of Avatar for us, and it was still a work in progress, but two things were very clear at that time. One is, Avatar was obviously going to be an awesome movie, and the other was that the camera system Cameron and Vincent Pace built to shoot that movie was absolutely remarkable. It was providing 3D imagery that was so much more sophisticated and of a higher quality that anything I’ve ever seen before in the world of 3D. Really at that point I decided our movie had to be in 3D, and we had to use that camera system to shoot it.

Question: When you made that decision, did you have to go back and say we shoot it completely different if we want to take advantage of the 3D effect?

Paul W.S. Anderson: I had to go back to the studio and ask them for more money, because obviously, especially if you shoot a 3D movie, it’s a lot more expensive. The camera system is more expensive, it’s slower when you shoot; it’s a more painstaking process shooting a 3D movie, so I had a big fight with them and they gave me more money. Obviously not as much as I wanted, but they gave me the extra money to shoot in 3D.

Question: Milla, why do you keep taking this role?

Milla Jovovich: Resident Evil, man. It’s my brother’s favorite video game. Please, and besides the fact that at this point, it’s like, you just have this world you live in. And you know, what is more appropriate than those movies? I’ve spent the last 10 years of my life doing them, so why not. It’s so fun and I get to kick butt. Look, the fact is, what I’ve always said is it’s amazing to do like, really serious movies, but what’s amazing about Resident Evil is that you get a chance to do a really great fun story. It’s like going to Disneyland. You get to make a movie where you’re flying and kicking butt and you’re training and doing so much stuff you would never do in real life, and I love that… just living in this sort of different world.

Question: Ali, clearly there’s a lot of camaraderie here [between you and Milla]?

Ali Larter: Oh, we have so much fun, I mean, it was one of the greatest things. I was so excited to come back and, you know, to see Milla. I mean, she brings so much to these movies and they’re a collaboration. I was there every day watching them. She brings so much style and so much class to them and so much fun to watch, and she kicks ass like no other. And it’s fine. because girls aren’t always cool, you know, and I come in there, and we just have a lot of fun together, and I hope you see that on the screen. We’re laughing and we both love figuring out our stunts and really getting dirty in there.

Question: What made this series so successful?

Paul W.S. Anderson: I think Milla touched on it. It’s hot girls with big guns. What’s not to like about that? You know, the movie is made by fans of the video game to start with. We’re all very passionate about the source material, and the movies are made with a lot of passion and energy, and also it’s financed by a studio that’s very behind the franchise. For this movie, they said yes, go make it in 3D, and I said, I want this movie to be more epic than the other Resident Evil movies, so they said yes, go trek around the world to shoot it. It’s the fourth film in a franchise and at a point where a lot of other studios would try to kind of cheap out and do it a little cheaper, Sony spent more money than ever before on the film. They allowed me to go and shoot in Tokyo, in Los Angeles. We shot in Canada and we even shot in the snow and ice in Alaska. They allowed me to make a globetrotting movie, and having that kind of support is very very important to a franchise like this.

Milla Jovovich: It is true. From the first film, when it was me and Michelle, I mean, it started out and all the actors just love the game. It’s really one of those things where you come from a fan kind of place where you’re like, aw Resident Evil, awesome, I want to do this, I love that game so much, and, you know, I think that passion really shows on screen, I guess. You guys know it better than we do, but it’s No. 4, so, something worked. We’re so lucky to Ali back on this one.

Ali Larter: Also, this one is almost closest to the video game. You brought in so many cool direct shots and different things. I mean, real fans of Resident Evil are going to be so excited when they see this movie.

Question: Really quick, talk about all the conversions to 3D that are going on right now, and people rushing to films that have not necessarily been shot in 3D, but films that have been converted to 3D.

Paul W.S. Anderson: There’s no doubt if you look at movies that converted and you look at movies that are actually originated in 3D, the quality is a lot better of a movie that’s actually shot in 3D.

Click here for info on the trailer

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