Introduced in 1996, Capcom's Resident Evil video game series - comprised of Resident Evil, Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, and Resident Evil -Code: Veronica- has sold more than 16 million units worldwide and grossed over $600 million. The idea to bring the franchise to the screen began with producer Bernd Eichinger, Chairman of the Management Board of Constantin Film AG.

Eichinger: "After I caught people in my office playing the Resident Evil game when it first hit the marketplace, I could instantly see its movie potential. We went to Capcom's headquarters in Japan to show the company that we got what the game was about and that we were capable of making a big international movie from their successful game. We were granted the film rights in 1997."

After a couple of years developing the project, Constantin entered into a deal with Impact Pictures, founded by producer Jeremy Bolt and director Paul W.S. Anderson, the team behind Mortal Combat, Event Horizon and Soldier.

Bolt: "We had been talking to Constantin about developing and financing a few projects when, by pure chance, we discovered they owned the rights to Resident Evil, a game Paul and I enjoyed enormously. Bernd was impressed by Paul's knowledge of the game and asked him if he'd be interested in writing a script. When Bernd read it, he knew the concept he had been looking for had finally been cracked.

Signed to star in RESIDENT EVIL were Milla Jovovich (The Fifth Element), Michelle Rodriguez (The Fast and the Furious, Girlfight), and Eric Mabius (Cruel Intentions). They, in turn, would be supported by a world-class ensemble of behind-the-camera talent that included production and costume designer Richard Bridgeland (Richard III), visual effects producer Richard Yuricich (Event Horizon) and prosthetic and animatronic effects house Animated Extras International, LTD. (Gladiator). The film's original score would be composed by Marco Beltrami (Mimic) and shock rocker Marilyn Manson.

Bolt: "We thought it would be great to have Manson team up with Beltrami and see how that unusual combination would work."

Shot entirely in and around Berlin, Germany, RESIDENT EVIL began eleven weeks of principal photography on March 5, 2001. Among the locations used by the filmakers were the Reichstag U-bahn station, Landsberger Allee, Kaserne Krampnitz, the Schloss Linstedt and the soundstages of Studio Aldershof in East Berlin.

Bolt: "We did scout locations all over Europe from Lativa to the Ukraine and looked at underground bunkers in Great Britain and the old German nuclear one in Bonn. It was the Reichstag station that sold us on making the movie in Berlin although we had done some prep at London's Shepperton Studios. The production value in using the Reichstag as the underground entrance to the Hive was so in tune with Richard Bridgeland's overall design, we just had to make the film in Berlin."

"A kinetic onslaught of flesh and flesh-eaters" (Variety), RESIDENT EVIL opened theatrically on March 15, 2002.