Taken from an interview with writer and director Gareth Morgan:
With all your other films in the pipeline, can you tell us about your reasons for making a short film about Parasite Eve?
I have always wanted to do a film about Parasite Eve, mainly because I like Aya Brea's character, a strong willed New York cop, that looks good in an evening dress. The first two games and the book/film they are moving on from are a great science fiction story, one ripe for film and I am surprised they have only ever turned the book into a film, but saying that our film is a fan film, we don't have any assistance from Square, hence our very very meagre budget, but here at Zenithfilms we make films regardless of budget. You should check out, selfless plug here, our latest short film EPiSODE that has officially been selected for this years Raindance Film Festival, that film had no budget at all!
Will your Parasite Eve stay true to the original game or is this an adaptation of the material?
The film will of course be cannon to the source material. From my perspective, making anything that is based on a game and then having it have no correlation to the game other than names is an instant fail. The gaming community is a very vocal one, yes there are a lot of trolls, but still its an active community and one, in terms of the film industry, that has been stamped all over, in recent memory the only game to film that I believe had some merit in translation was the DOOM film.
Think of our short film as a chronological look back at all the events Aya has had to go through because of Eve. When I was designing the film I took story elements from Parasite Eve 1 & 2 while taking style examples from 3rd Birthday, purely because, in my opinion, 3rd Birthday isn't exactly cannon to the original story, and they ruined Aya's character in a Metroid Other M fashion.
One question we assume from the fans will be, is there a shower scene?
(Laughs) In a word, yes. I originally planned to make this short a few years back to coincide with the release of 3rd Birthday, but couldn't find an actress willing to do the scene, its a lot to ask someone when you can't pay them! But then Erica, our costume designer, agreed to do it and the rest as they say is history.
What do you believe are the risks in making a Parasite Eve short?
The one biggest risk is pissing off the fans. Granted its impossible to please everyone, and haters gonna hate, but at the same time the film needs to embrace the source material, be a part of the overall franchise and to be considered relevant.
When we released the promo shot of Erica as Aya, I didn't know what to expect, well I expected trolling at first whining about anything and eveything, but thankfully it was met with an overall positive attitude. So I hope in the end I can deliver a short film that works for the fans and also brings in new people to the franchise.
When will the film be released?
30% of the overall filming has been completed, I'll see to having some stills released asap, with the rest scheduled for later this month. I envisaged a release date in Autumn or Fall for those west of the pond.
Thank you Gareth and all the best with this and all the other films you have planned
