Resident Evil: Extinction: Report From Mexico City
June 2006
By: Mr. Disgusting
Alice (Milla Jovovich), now in hiding in the Nevada desert, once again joins forces with Carlos Olivera (Oded Fehr) and L.J. (Mike Epps), along with new survivors Claire (Ali Larter), K-Mart (Spencer Locke) and Nurse Betty (Ashanti) to try to eliminate the deadly virus that threatens to make every human being undead... and to seek justice. Since being captured by the Umbrella Corporation, Alice has been subjected to biogenic experimentation and becomes genetically altered, with super-human strengths, senses and dexterity. These skills, and more, will be needed if anyone is to remain alive.
Day 33 of 55, there’s an unusual calm in the air as we walk past the cast and crew from Sony Screen Gems’ next
Resident Evil film. We’re on a stage somewhere in the heart of Mexico City, while outside the temperature is perfect. Crew members rush past us as they are in a scurry trying to built a set for a shoot coming in the next couple of days (a clone sequence maybe?). Even as everyone works in an accelerated rate, the calm continues to take over the environment. The reason? Imagine working in 140-degree temperatures for 15 hours a day, six days a week.
Earlier in the shoot Milla Jovovich, Ali Larter, Oded Fehr and the rest of the cast and crew were off shooting in the middle of Mexicali, the third hottest spot on the entire planet (so we’re told). The cast had to act by running through deep sand, while zombies in full make-up (!) were chasing after them. Many drank as many as 12 bottles of water a day to keep hydrated. The FX crew forced to pile layers upon layers of make-up on the zombies in order to keep it from melting/burning off in the desert heat. It was hell. Filmmaking never sounded so grueling in my entire life. Watching these scenes on film should be quite interesting knowing what type of conditions they were working in. But all is well -- spirits are up and most of all… the air conditioning.
Today was Ali Larter’s last day, and while unfortunately we didn’t get a chance to see her in action we did get to see Milla Jovovich and co. turn a likewise routine day into a laugh fest.
To set up the scene, we must first get into the story a bit more. Alice (Milla) is being followed and tracked by the Umbrella Corporation. She’s on a mission to hunt out and destroy all of the satellites that are giving up her location. In addition, Alice finds a red journal, which explains that there is a herd of unaffected humans in Alaska. So the basic mission is to get to Alaska, but Alice and her new crew must first stop through Las Vegas to get gas. Vegas is now covered in sand from a major storm, but that doesn’t stop them from making their way through the deserted landmark. Each night Alice and co. set up camp, along with cameras around the perimeter to keep a look out for the undead.
The undead have taken an evolutionary leap. Not only are there new zombie dogs, but also zombie crows make their feature film debut in
Extinction. The zombies are now faster, they are now decomposing… and some have been genetically altered into super zombies. We were also told that a lot of the zombies have begun to learn and think (yes, I know what you’re all thinking).
So back to the set, to the side of today’s shoot is a custom built interior of a school bus, which is where they take cover from the flying menaces. From the exterior it looked as if it was just a hallway designed for some sequence, until you looked inside. Not much to look at really. Across from the bus was where Russell Mulcahy was hard at working shooting a scene with Milla Jovovich, Ali Larter, and Oded Fehr. On set was a giant green army truck with its bed covered by a mesh net. Attached to the back was a giant rod manned by one crewmember, which was used to make the truck look at if was actually moving. Behind the truck was a massive blue screen, which will eventually be transformed into the sand-beaten Las Vegas. The cameraman leans on top of the hood of the truck setting up a close-up of Milla while light adjustments are made. Russell Mulcahy is very active, almost as if he had 18 cups of coffee to get going. He’s pacing back and forth, asking minor adjustments to be made as he smokes his cigarette. His crewmembers are obviously his regulars, as everyone seems to have a deep Australian accent. The director yells “action!” a few seconds pass and Milla jokes sarcastically “isn’t this supposed to be rocking, like we’re moving or something?” There are a few chuckles as someone runs behind the truck to get the shot rolling again. After they cut the take Milla jumps off the truck and heads over for a quick smoke… and smoking she is, smoking hot.
Here’s a little dirt for you fanboys who find yourself drooling over Paul W.S Anderson’s sexy tough chicks. Milla is dressing all browns and beiges. The first thing that caught my eyes was her custom-made beige thigh highs, which attached to her short, short brown army skirt. She’s wearing a low cut beige shirt with a unique looking brown vest. On top of that she has her brown trench coat with a shotgun holster strapped over her back. She’s wearing brown biker gloves and has one hell of a sexy haircut (I guess when the world comes to an end and zombies are attacking humans, there are still places to get highlights done). Oded Fehr is dressed in full army garb while 14 YEAR OLD is wearing her own teenage rendition of “army-cool.”
The scene is lame, like ultra lame. Basically they kept shooting a scene where Milla looks out of the truck and sees a sign (which was a man’s hand until CG) over and over again. No zombies, no action, no nata. But we DID get to see photographs of the evolution of the zombies in the FX trailer (woo woo!), I’ll get back to that in a minute.
So yeah, the scene is boring, so boring in fact I’m obsessing over a box of Pops I snagged from the food cart. As bored as I was, it was really nice to see a director who appeared to know
exactly what he wanted and so on top of his shit. Usually we see these half-assed morons who barely say a word, and then act like their heart is all over the picture – and of course when the film comes out it’s complete ass. Even if Paul W.S. Anderson’s script is terrible, which is just might be, I think we still could be in for one hell of a solid picture. As serious as he was, Milla still kept everyone’s spirits up with her antics. She spent a few minutes making fun of their Australian accents, and acting as if the movie was a “serious film.” Sure it doesn’t sound like much, but it was one of those moments you just “had to be there”.
Now as I promised, here’s what we discovered about the zombies. First and foremost is that we won’t be seeing another remake of Michael Jackson’s
Thriller, sorry fellas, the ‘80s are back where they belong. Also, if you remember the zombies in the first two films were basically just pale, painted humans. They weren’t very frightening, and moved pretty slowly. Well, from what I saw, Paul W.S. Anderson feels the need to break every rule he ever established while throwing together an montage of older zombie films. I’m sure they’d call it a “homage” but it felt more like “rip-off” to me. Anyways, to stay on track, the zombies have evolved (as stated a few paragraphs above). Now they are decaying, or as the Bruce Fuller of Patrick Tatopoulos Designs called it “pruning”. This is the first time in the franchise that the zombies actually have prosthetics! We saw some pics of the various zombie designs, one from the Vegas sequence, which was fantastic! They had before and after shots as they attempted to make the flesh look droopy, which didn’t work, and also attempted to make their eye sockets pitch black, which also failed. From what we could see is that Fuller and co. were truly out to get inventive with the zombies. The “Super Undeads” were boiled and tumor glazed zombies, which we found out were created by the Umbrella Corp. The zombies looked fantastic, and the fact that they had so many “hero” zombies created only added to my enthusiasm for this pic.
Putting zombies behind us, we also saw a very “special” set under construction. What was being assembled was a scene from the first
RE, the infamous “laser” sequence. Why on Earth would they be building that? Apparently there are Alice clones that are supposed to have all of her memories… so Umbrella Corp. sticks these clones in the same laser situation, only to have them fail miserably.
After it was all said and done and I digested everything that was thrown at me, I felt as if
Extinction is a serious case of zombie vomit. Take every zombie movie/franchise you can think of, pull out a scene here and there and then assemble it in a way that it works with Anderson’s plot, now you’ve got
Extinction. Usually from one day on set you can’t really tell how good (or bad) a movie is going to be, but in this case I feel confident in saying this
should be better than the first two. Sure it’s a giant bowl of regurgitated nonsense, but seriously, what do you want from an action/horror zombie pic? Just bring on the guns, blood, guts and Milla in thigh highs and we’ll call it a day.
Extinction is going to be one of the better popcorn horror flicks of the year when it gets released in 2007.
Other Set Reports:
Click
here for full set report
Click
here for an interview with Oded Fehr
Click
here for an interview with Ali Larter
Click
here for an interview with Milla Jovovich
Click
here for an interview with Producer Jeremy Bolt
