Resident Evil Cast
Image: Residence of Evil

Three of the original cast members of the live-action opening of Resident Evil have reunited for the first time since shooting the iconic intro. The video of the reunion, hosted on the Residence of Evil YouTube channel, features Eric Pirius (who played Albert Wesker), Charles Kraslavsky (Chris Redfield), and Greg Smith (Barry Burton) talking about their experiences filming the original Resident Evil opening in Japan, and is part of a promotional campaign for a Resident Evil fan film.

The film, called The Keeper's Diary, brings to life one of the most memorable documents in the original Resident Evil about a person undergoing the horrifying transformation into a zombie thanks to their exposure to the T-Virus. It is being directed by Resident Evil super fan and filmmaker Andrew Saullo and will star the original Chris Redfield, Charles Kraslavsky, in the role of The Keeper.

According to Saullo, the desire to start working on the fan film emerged from seeing the various attempts from bigger production companies to adapt Resident Evil into live-action.

"This all came about after Welcome To Raccoon City," Saullo tells Time Extension. "I don't want to rip on anybody's work or anything like that, but the movie kind of lit a fire up underneath my butt and I was like, 'Okay, I have to do something.' So I sent both Charlie and Eric a message online to see if they wanted to play The Keeper and I didn't think I was going to get a response from either one of them, but both of them actually replied, so I was like, 'Wow'. But we ended up going with Charlie, and Charlie is very passionate about the subject."

Kraslavsky tells us, "There was part of me that was hoping that someone would contact me for a project like this. I was just really, really impressed with the storyboard itself and I think that was the main thing. It just looked so beautiful and I was like, 'Wow, this guy knows what he's doing.' And then I did a little background on Andrew and looked at some of the stuff he'd done."

The trailer for The Keeper: A Biohazard Story was released last month, also on the Residence of Evil YouTube channel, and we have to say, it looks surprisingly well done. It features Kraslavsky reading from The Keeper's Diary over a quick timelapse of the character's deteriorating mental state.

According to Kraslavsky, he hadn't ever actually played the game, spending much of his youth playing Star Fox 64 instead, so this brought some challenges to taking on the role. Luckily, however, Saullo was on hand to supply him with some necessary context.

"Andrew very thoroughly and kindly explained everything and also sent me stills of what The Keeper looks like," says Kraslavsky. "He also explained to me more about who his character was and what he was doing there at the Spencer Mansion. [...] There were also a lot of discussions about the influences on Shinji Mikami and Resident Evil, and I think Stanley Kubrick's The Shining is a huge influence. So in my mind, I equated it to Jack Torrance. So that was my inspiration for The Keeper. It's this guy who is stuck in this mansion going crazy."

Saullo told us that the film is still not ready, being in the midst of production, but the director is hoping to do a crowdfunding campaign later this year to get some additional backing. In the meantime, he's teased some more announcements and promotional videos, including a let's play from the original cast. Images of both Pirius and Smith in costume have also appeared online, but Saullo wants to keep the context behind this shoot a bit of a secret for now.

What do you make of the trailer? Let us know in the comments!

[source youtu.be]