Movie director says Capcom copied his monster for Resident Evil Village boss fight
"It's one-to-one."
A movie director has accused Capcom of copying one of his monsters for a Resident Evil Village boss fight.
Dutch director Richard Raaphorst said the Sturm boss found in the recently-released Resident Evil Village is a "one-to-one" copy of a monster he created for his 2013 found footage horror film Frankenstein's Army.
Capcom failed to comment by press time.
THERE MAY BE SPOILERS FOR RESIDENT EVIL VILLAGE AHEAD.
Frankenstein's Army features a hulking humanoid with a propeller for a head. It's eventually taken down by a group of soldiers in an explosion of flames. You can see the scene in the video below:
Resident Evil Village features a boss fight with a monster called Sturm, who is encountered at Heisenberg's factory. This equally hulking humanoid also has a propellor for a head, and is defeated in an explosion of flames. You can see the boss fight in the video below:
"This is just one-to-one, really," Raaphorst told Eurogamer in an interview.
"It's just the same scene as in my movie, except that in my movie you have to cut loose the fuel tubes. That's the only thing that is missing. But the whole thing is getting into flames, and then it explodes, and then the way it rotates through the camera - it's all the same, really. Even the environments, the whole colour palette. It looks like an animatic for my movie."
Raaphorst said Capcom has at no point approached him, and that he only found out about the similarity after he received messages from fans on 7th May - the day Resident Evil Village went on sale.
"At first I felt pissed," he said. "Then I felt proud. Now, I see all the reactions and I feel pissed again, and insulted. It's so difficult to come up with a great design. It's really hard to actually think about something that communicates as a cool design. It's not just that ideas are floating around that you can grab. It's actually hard labour. Then they just grab it and put it somewhere in the game.
"It's creative abuse."
Raaphorst told Eurogamer he does not expect to receive any royalty payment from Capcom because he does not own the rights to the film. Those creative rights are owned by MPI Media Group, the American movie finance and distribution company Raaphorst partnered with to get Frankenstein's Army made.
But he would like a credit in Resident Evil Village. Raaphorst said: "I am exploring my options."
"If they had asked me, 'hey, Richard, we'd love to have your design in our next Resident Evil, and we will give you a credit or some kind of royalty payment,' I would have been honoured and flattered and proud. It would have been a super positive experience."