Claim: Resident Evil's protagonist was almost Milla Jovovich, but another actress was chosen.

Resident Evil is a science fiction action-horror hexalogy film series loosely based on the Japanese video game franchise of the same name by Capcom . German studio Constantin Film bought the rights to the first film in January 1997 with Alan B. McElroy and George A. Romero as potential writers . In 2001 , Sony Entertainment acquired distribution rights and hired Paul W. S. Anderson as writer and director for Resident Evil -LRB- 2002 -RRB- . Anderson continued on as writer and producer for the sequels , Resident Evil : Apocalypse -LRB- 2004 -RRB- and Resident Evil : Extinction -LRB- 2007 -RRB- , and returned as the director for Resident Evil : Afterlife -LRB- 2010 -RRB- , Resident Evil : Retribution -LRB- 2012 -RRB- and Resident Evil : The Final Chapter -LRB- 2016 -RRB- .   The fictional Umbrella Corporation , which acts as the main antagonist in the series , is a bioengineering pharmaceutical company that creates bioweapons . Umbrella was responsible for the zombie apocalypse , which occurred after the corporation 's T-virus infected the Earth 's population . The films follow protagonist Alice , an original character created for the films portrayed by Milla Jovovich . Alice , who was once a security operative working for Umbrella , becomes an enemy of the corporation . Characters from the video game series also appeared in the film series , including Jill Valentine , Carlos Olivera , Claire Redfield , Albert Wesker , Chris Redfield , Barry Burton , Leon S. Kennedy and Ada Wong .   Despite consistent negative reviews , with six films released , the Resident Evil film series is the highest-grossing film series to be based on video games of all time , having grossed over $ 1.233 billion worldwide .