{"id":1043618,"date":"2026-09-04T21:08:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T21:08:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1043618\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T21:08:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T21:08:16","slug":"zach-cregger-talks-resident-evil-steven-spielberg-and-whats-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1043618\/","title":{"rendered":"Zach Cregger Talks ‘Resident Evil’, Steven Spielberg And What’s Next"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tSony<\/a>\u2018s new\u00a0Resident Evil<\/a>\u00a0movie hit tracking this week<\/a>, poised for a franchise record domestic opening \u2014 and with that, Zach Cregger<\/a> is back.<\/p>\n

\n\tComing off the Oscar-winning\u00a0Weapons after a breakthrough moment with the 20th\/New Regency horror film\u00a0Barbarian, Cregger recently kicked off screenings for his latest, sharing only a select 30 minutes with the media to avoid spoiling the surprises he has in store.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe footage suggested that Cregger may have delivered his best work yet. No less an original, in his mind, than his past films \u2014 even if it comes with the trappings of hot video game IP \u2014 this\u00a0Resident Evil\u00a0is an intensely propulsive and compelling tale following a medical courier played by Austin Abrams<\/a>, one of the stars of\u00a0Weapons.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile driving through the snowy darkness one night, the courier comes face to the face with the results of a contagion \u2014 the Umbrella Corporation\u2019s infamous T-virus \u2014 and chaos ensues. Cregger says the creative challenge with\u00a0Resident Evil \u2014 which comes in at a lean and mean 95 minutes \u2014 was to \u201cfloor it at minute six and not take my foot off the gas,\u201d driving the viewer straight into hell.<\/p>\n

\n\tAhead of his film\u2019s September 18 debut in theaters, Cregger spoke candidly with Deadline about a wide variety of topics, from the brutal conditions that birthed his\u00a0Resident Evil\u00a0to the star quality of Abrams, Mikey Madison casting rumors, \u201celfing\u201d scripts, and why he\u2019s \u201cnot going to go tackle any other franchises\u201d \u2014 though perhaps he has a romantic comedy in him.<\/p>\n

\n\tCasting new light on the inception of his next film, the outer space-set Warner Bros sci-fi thriller\u00a0The Flood<\/a>, Cregger also touches on his\u00a0Weapons\u00a0prequel\u00a0Gladys; the tonal inspirations of the forthcoming dark comedy\u00a0Little One<\/a>, on which he\u2019s a producer; the film that had him \u201claughing my ass off\u201d in theaters this year; Obsession\/Backrooms mania; and more.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: You\u2019ve talked in the past about a creative writing technique you\u2019re partial to called \u201celfing,\u201d where you pretend that a stupid elf you\u2019ve paid $10 is penning your first draft. It\u2019s a way of transcending the intimidation of the blank page that\u2019s proven helpful for you. Did you do that with Resident Evil?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tZACH CREGGER: <\/strong>You know, there was not really an \u201celfed\u201d version of this script. This was a different process altogether for me because it came about [when] I was on the set of Barbarian. I was in Bulgaria and my producer, Roy Lee, was like, \u201cIs there any video game franchise you would want to adapt?\u201d And I was like, \u201cOnly Resident Evil.\u201d But I mean, yeah, good luck, right? Because at that time, Barbarian hadn\u2019t come out; I didn\u2019t have any juice whatsoever. And he was like, \u201cWell, you should think about a take. You should think about what it could be.\u201d I couldn\u2019t help myself; I was thinking. And then Barbarian came out and it was a success. And so I figured, OK, I can go knock on their door and pitch this idea.<\/p>\n

\n\tI\u2019d come up with the concept \u2014 the conceit? [Laughs] What a pretentious prick I\u2019ve become. I\u2019d had the concept for the movie. So I had lunch with Constantine and I was like, \u201cHere\u2019s what I would do. I would like to just bring this to survival horror. I\u2019d like to make a movie that feels like it feels when you play a Resident Evil game. So, gritty, horror-first, medical courier, blah, blah, blah.\u201d I kind of mapped out the whole story. It took 30 seconds \u2014 it\u2019s a very simple story \u2014 and they dug it. They were down, and so I was able to go start writing where I had the beginning and the middle and the end in my head already.<\/p>\n

\n\tI wrote it with my buddy Shay [Hatten], and it was a really fast writing process where it was just basically me being like, \u201cOkay, so basically you go here.\u201d And it was one of those things where you have too many ideas. There was never a moment where I was like, \u201cGod, what should happen?\u201d It was always just like, \u201cOh! Then they\u2019ll jump off the roof.\u201d So it was just easy.<\/p>\n

\n\tI was still not thinking, by the way, they were going to let me direct it. I was thinking they\u2019re going to hire some big shot to make this movie, obviously. It\u2019s their most valuable property; it\u2019s like a household name, and that\u2019s fine. I don\u2019t give a sh*t. And so I wrote it really free, really careless, which is a healthy way to write. And by the time I was done, I loved it and I was like, \u201cI hope I get to do this thing. That\u2019d be cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSo then, it was Weapons time, and then on the other side of that, I was able to do it.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: You reteam with Austin Abrams here after giving him an incredible role in Weapons. Between that film, Resident Evil and Whalefall, you and Brian Duffield have given him a major opportunity \u2014 the chance to show that he\u2019s a movie star. When did you first see that quality in him?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tCREGGER:<\/strong> Oh, well, when I was doing Weapons, it was obvious to me. I mean, first of all, I\u2019ve got to say, I was an Austin Abrams fanatic from the time he did Brad\u2019s Status. I remember seeing Brad\u2019s Status, that Mike White movie, and just being like, \u201cOkay, who is this guy? Who is this kid that is just absolutely bulldozing his way through this movie and doing nothing?\u201d I was like, \u201cI can\u2019t believe the nerve of this kid to be starring with Ben Stiller, and it\u2019s a two-hander, and just absolutely slaying with no energy expenditure.\u201d It was one of the most courageous performances. I mean, he was 19 years old or something when he did that, and it is so restrained and he makes it look so easy. That is the kind of performance that masters of acting will spend 60 years prepping and then finally be able to deliver a performance like that \u2014 and Austin just did it.<\/p>\n

\n\tSo I was immediately like, \u201cI am all in on this kid.\u201d I was even trying to figure out if I could get him in Barbarian. That\u2019s how in on Austin I was. And so then we\u2019re making Weapons and everything I thought about this guy is true. And he\u2019s awesome. We got along so well. We just make each other laugh. He\u2019s such a good energy on set. I was like, \u201cThis is it, dude. This is my guy.\u201d And so when it was time to put Resident Evil together, there was not even a second choice.<\/p>\n

\n\tI went to [Sony\u2019s] Tom Rothman. I was in New York editing Weapons, but we got on a Zoom to talk about Resident Evil and I was like, \u201cIt\u2019s Austin Abrams.\u201d And to his credit, he was like, \u201cTotally, he\u2019s great.\u201d He knew. He had seen Austin in [Jon Watts\u2019] Wolfs and was like, \u201cYeah, that kid is the real deal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: I did forget about that performance \u2014 that was certainly a big stepping stone on his way to Weapons\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tCREGGER:<\/strong> Yeah. He just utterly destroyed that part. It\u2019s amazing. So anyway, what a long-winded way of saying I\u2019m a big fan.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: Before news of Austin\u2019s casting emerged, rumors swirled that you were eyeing Mikey Madison for a role in Resident Evil. Was there ever any substance to that?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tCREGGER:<\/strong> Never. I don\u2019t know how that started. I love her, she\u2019s great, but that was just never a thing.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: You\u2019ve talked about approaching Resident Evil as an original work created within the framework of pre-existing IP\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tCREGGER:<\/strong> Yeah, but that has been taken horribly out of context. What I mean is it\u2019s an original story, but it\u2019s still a Resident Evil story. I\u2019m not taking a story from the games; that\u2019s what that means.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: Exactly. It seems like the savviest and most exciting creative move you can make today is demonstrating your command of an IP-based tentpole, while still making something totally your own. You\u2019ve been explicit about the passion for Resident Evil that drove you to the project and that you initiated it because of that \u2014 but as a filmmaker at your level with a lot of choices, has there ever been any pressure around wading into tentpoles, or big IP? Projects that you had less of a clear angle on?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tCREGGER:<\/strong> I have never been approached by another franchise. Maybe I have, but it would never get to me because I have been very clear that I\u2019m not doing that. I\u2019m doing this, and that\u2019s it for me. So I\u2019m not going to go tackle any other franchises \u2014 just because I\u2019m a writer, and I want to write whatever I want to write. I don\u2019t want to write something where I have to make sure I\u2019m tagging different data points to satisfy X. I just want to satisfy me. And the only reason that I think Resident Evil is OK for me to do is because I\u2019m enthusiastic about the games and I like the story that I thought of with the games and I\u2019m making it for me. I think this movie is cool, and I hope it checks the fan boxes because I\u2019m a fan and I\u2019m checking my boxes. I\u2019m making the Resident Evil movie that I wish existed, so I can do that with a clean heart and a clear conscience and not feel like I\u2019m getting f*cked by some weird industry thing.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: Your three films to date reveal you as a filmmaker interested in structure. What about innovating around cinematic structure excites you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tCREGGER:<\/strong> I mean, I\u2019m fascinated with how we tell stories. I like structure, I like to pick it apart, I like to understand it. You have to know the rules to break the rules, right? For example, Flood, my next movie, is another movie that is structurally bizarre. Like Barbarian and Weapons, it doesn\u2019t jump perspective, but it structurally is, I think, dexterous. Whereas the goal for Resident Evil was to be the opposite: I wanted to prove that I didn\u2019t need to do some sort of narrative trickery, that I could just follow one person from Point A to Point B and still be compelling. The real challenge of Resident Evil was, can I floor it at minute six and not take my foot off the gas? If I could do that, holy sh*t, that would be a fun challenge for me to do. And there are a couple of moments in this movie where [Austin\u2019s character] does have a quiet moment of rest, so maybe I failed. But I love the result.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: You\u2019re someone who came out of comedy \u2014 and The Flood, as it\u2019s understood, is a sci-fi thriller of some sort. Are you excited by the thought of spanning all genres?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tCREGGER:<\/strong> No, I don\u2019t care about genre. I just care about whatever idea I have. So I don\u2019t think in terms of, what genre should I tackle? I just hope I get a good idea, and whatever that idea is, that\u2019s enough. So I just happen to resonate the strongest lately with genre fair. But if I came up with a banger for a romantic comedy, I would try it.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: The Flood was one of three scripts you penned in quick succession \u2014 it was always one you were going to do. But is there anything you can share yet about what you\u2019ve tapped into there? What made that project a must-do?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tCREGGER:<\/strong> Flood, I kind of came up with the idea because I was very excited to work with Steven Spielberg<\/a>, and we had a weird situation where there was a short window where I could have an idea and we could link up together. So I had like five days, basically, to have an idea. And I entered a mental state I have yet to ever repeat or do prior, where I was in some sort of frenzy where I was just like, \u201cI\u2019ve I got to have an idea for Steven Spielberg!\u201d I was just in a frenzy. And then I was watching this movie, and somebody in the movie I was watching was entering an abandoned spaceship. And my wife was like, \u201cThere\u2019s nothing scarier than being trapped in space.\u201d And I was like, \u201cOh, that\u2019s interesting. Maybe there\u2019s something here.\u201d And then this character goes into the ship and they find something that was pretty weird and scared them. And I was thinking, \u201cWhat would be weirder and scarier than that? What could happen in this scenario that would freak me out more than this?\u201d And it\u2019s never happened to me before, but in a flash, I had the whole movie explode in front of my eyes. I just knew what it could be; I think I probably stood up and was like, \u201cI have it!\u201d It was a total ridiculous moment, but I love it. So then I wrote that as I was writing Resident Evil. I was writing those two movies at the same time.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: Returning to Resident Evil, I love what you\u2019ve said about filmmaking as a psychic war\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tCREGGER:<\/strong> Yeah. I mean, it\u2019s a psychic war just in the terms that making a movie is just completely unrelenting. It\u2019s prolonged, and so every day, you are absolutely withered, and yet you\u2019ve got to do it again the next day, and the next day, and the next day, for many, many months. It is so demanding, and it\u2019s so funny. I don\u2019t think I appreciated that the hardest part of filmmaking is not the creative aspects. It\u2019s not where to put the camera and what to tell the actor. It\u2019s just the immense, unending pressure of the logistics and navigating the people and all of those things that they don\u2019t talk about in film school.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: But what was the most brutal idiosyncrasy of this project?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tCREGGER:<\/strong> Oh dude, it was night shoots that were nocturnal. The weather was an absolute motherf*ck. I\u2019m shooting in the Czech Republic, so there\u2019s a severe language and culture gap, and I\u2019m trying to make sure that everybody is seeing exactly the movie that I\u2019m seeing, and it just required a lot of energy expenditure. You know, when you\u2019re making a movie, however many hundreds of people that are on set, they\u2019re all feeding on your energy. You have to be supplying the energy to the entirety of the organism, and it\u2019s a lot.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE:<\/strong> I can only imagine. You\u2019ve said you even ended up directing remotely, with an IV in you, on Weapons.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tCREGGER:<\/strong> Yeah. My body just gave out on me, dude. But that was also, I was shooting in Atlanta and the insane heat and humidity, and I\u2019d spent however many days trying to corral 17 children to run and jump through windows. [Laughs] And I\u2019d been shooting double shifts six days a week with my cinematographer. It was brutal!<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: Do you think the mental fortitude you\u2019ve had to find within yourself as a filmmaker is innate to you? Or has it been something you\u2019ve really had to cultivate?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tCREGGER:<\/strong> No! I don\u2019t even have it: I\u2019m just doing it because you have to do it. I\u2019m not special. I\u2019m just a normal person, so no, it\u2019s hard.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: As a producer, you\u2019ve already \u00a0wrapped on another movie \u2014 a dark comedy called Little One that we scooped<\/a> over the summer. What excites you in the comedy space \u2014 and what\u2019s your perspective on comedy now, as someone known for reaching audiences with event movies? What would it take to make people remember that a comedy can be one?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tCREGGER:<\/strong> Oh, I don\u2019t know, dude. I want comedy to come back to the theater so bad, man. When I saw The Drama this year, I was laughing my ass off in that movie, and the theater was laughing its ass off. And I was like, \u201cThis feels so good. Can we just have this back? Please, can we have this back?\u201d Little One, I\u2019m involved with that because the filmmaker, Alex Kavutskiy, is a friend of mine and one of the more talented people that I know. I think that guy is truly special, and so anything I can do to be involved with him is an honor. I feel like that guy is beginning a very, very exciting career, and I\u2019m pumped. And he\u2019s making a weird kind of a Todd Solondz, Alexander Payne kind of a thing, which is a little bit more subtle, and my vibe totally. I love it.<\/p>\n

\n\tI don\u2019t know what comedy is going to come along that is going to finally blow the doors open and we can have our friend back, but I miss him. I miss our friend, and I hope he smiles on us again soon because we need it to.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: I mentioned Brian Duffield earlier \u2014 in July, news broke that you\u2019re teaming with him on a Warner Bros film adaptation of the viral horror meme Siren Head from Trevor Henderson. This is one of those projects emerging from a moment of incredible fervor around Obsession and Backrooms, projects from hot young digital-first talents. We\u2019ve seen historically that it can sometimes be perilous to chase a trend. Are there wrong lessons to take from this moment, in your mind?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tCREGGER:<\/strong> I mean, I don\u2019t know about wrong lessons. All I know is that if you find a story that turns you on and that you feel like is really compelling and works, then you\u2019re on the right track. If you\u2019re trying to just, \u201cHey, here\u2019s a hot IP, I think we can shoehorn something in here and get it in a theater,\u201d well, then you\u2019re coming at it from kind of a bad place, and I think you\u2019re probably going to make a bad movie. I think that the North Star should be like, \u201cDo I love this story? Do I love this story enough to spend a year of my goddamn life telling this story?\u201d That\u2019s a heavy thing, and I made the mistake in my 20s of being like, \u201cOh, I have an opportunity to make a movie [2009\u2019s Miss March]. I don\u2019t really love the story, but I could make a movie that I\u2019m in.\u201d And what happened? I made a bad movie and I suffered for it, and I wasted a year of my life making that movie.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd that\u2019s not fair to say because Trevor [Moore], who I made it with, is no longer here. He had a pretty different attitude towards that movie, and I think he would disagree with me. So I\u2019m only speaking for myself.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut look, Siren Head, I think that the story that we have is super cool, and so whether it was an internet meme or not, I would be interested in telling this story. And I think that\u2019s the lesson. It should stand on its own.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: What has it looked like for you to find a story you\u2019re obsessed on enough to commit to for years and roll up hill? That seems very difficult.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tCREGGER:<\/strong> It is long. Weapons took two and a half years, man. Barbarian took me four years to get that movie made.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: And 10 years or more is not uncommon\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tCREGGER:<\/strong> Absolutely. I don\u2019t know, dude. For me, I just get a feeling. Like for Flood, I have this feeling where I\u2019m just like, \u201cI will burn my house down to make this movie.\u201d You know what I mean? If God came down and was like, \u201cYou can make this movie, but you\u2019ve got to burn down your house,\u201d I\u2019d be like, \u201cOK, done.\u201d So if you have that attitude, then you\u2019re probably in the right spot.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: Are there other young filmmakers, along the lines of Kane Parsons and Curry Barker, that you\u2019re really excited by right now? I know you\u2019re a huge fan of Ari Aster, who\u2019s a contemporary\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tCREGGER:<\/strong> I think Ari is the most interesting person to me. I can watch an Ari movie 30 times because the explosion of ideas in every scene is really, really miraculous. I think he\u2019s profoundly talented and a serious inspiration. I\u2019m kind of in awe of him, and I hope that he makes movies for the rest of my life.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: What about younger guys?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tCREGGER:<\/strong> Dude, I think Curry is like, \u201cHoly sh*t.\u201d To come out of the gate with a movie like Obsession\u2026 I loved Obsession. It actually scared me. I thought it had such a voice, and if this is this guy\u2019s first at-bat\u2026 I know he made [the self-released] Milk & Serial, but if this is his first at-bat with a real crew and an actual team, holy sh*t. I\u2019m so excited to see what comes next, and I hear good things about his next movie, so I\u2019m pumped.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: Do you have other projects percolating right now as a writer, beyond Siren Head and the Weapons prequel?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tCREGGER:<\/strong> Oh, actually, Zach Shields is writing [Gladys]. I was developing the story with him, but he\u2019s writing it.<\/p>\n

\n\tYeah, I\u2019m always writing stuff. But my process is so broken. I write in a way that is kind of like I leap before I look. So I\u2019ll start something, I\u2019ll get 30 pages, and then I\u2019ll be like, \u201cEhhh, no.\u201d And then I\u2019ll move on and write 50 pages of something else, and I\u2019ll be like, \u201cEh.\u201d Or I\u2019ll write half of a script, I\u2019ll love it, and then I don\u2019t know how it needs to resolve, and then it\u2019ll sit there torturing me for years. So I\u2019m trying to stay productive, but we\u2019ll see.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sony\u2018s new\u00a0Resident Evil\u00a0movie hit tracking this week, poised for a franchise record domestic opening \u2014 and with that,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1043619,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[28],"tags":[300788,171,300659,53,32921,17109,19061,2407,302888,67,132,68,9827],"class_list":["post-1043618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-austin-abrams","tag-entertainment","tag-little-one","tag-movies","tag-qa","tag-resident-evil","tag-sony","tag-steven-spielberg","tag-the-flood","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-zach-cregger"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117214819542428346","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1043618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1043618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1043618\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1043619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1043618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1043618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1043618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}