10 Horror Movies You Didn't Know Nearly Happened
3. George A. Romero's Resident Evil
The legendary director is known for the Living Dead franchise, Creepshow and The Crazies, but if had things played out differently the Resident Evil series would have been part of his impressive filmography. Following the first game's success, German studio Constantin Film secured its rights in December 1996 and planned to fund a movie adaptation on the basis that they would hold sole distribution rights in their country.
After several attempts to get the project off the ground, Romero was brought in to work on the script, direct it and have his collaborator Peter Grunwald produce the horror-actioner. The collaboration got off to a promising start and the script was considered to be ambitious in scope despite Romero making a few alterations to the lore.
This partnership was short-lived due to studio head Bernd Eichinger's fear that the movie's extreme violence would earn it a NC-17 in the US and a FSK-18 rating in Germany and therefore not be profitable. Romero, however, stood his ground and this led to his firing.
Fortunately, a documentary chronicling the creative process behind the would-be franchise starter is set for release in 2024, so fans of the director and games may get to see what Romero had in mind.