Leon cast in Resident Evil: Retribution

By Fred Dutton Published 29 September, 2011

Johann Urb starts working on his fringe.

Estonian actor Johann Urb has reportedly been cast as Leon Kennedy in upcoming video game flick Resident Evil: Retribution.

Franchise mainstay Milla Jovovich broke the news on her Twitter feed (thanks for noticing, VG247), and posted a link to a clip of a script read-through.

Not heard of Mr Urb? Pff, you've not been paying enough attention. According to IMDB he played 'surfer dude' in Stephen King horror adaptation 1408, 'Mugatu bodyguard' in 2001 Ben Stiller comedy Zoolander and can soon be seen as 'sexy guy' in indie short Hot Dog Water.

Give the mugshot below an ogle. Nice dental work, no?

The latest Resi movie sees Paul W S Anderson return to the director's chair after last year's Resident Evil: Afterlife effort. It's due in cinemas some time next year.

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Picture of Fred.

About Fred Dutton

Fred Dutton is Eurogamer's US news editor, based in Washington DC.

Read more articles from Fred by visiting the Fred Dutton archive page.

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Comments (18) Latest comment 8 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • neilka #1 8 months ago

    A green Urb is the perfect choice really.

  • telboy007 #2 8 months ago

    ba-dum tsch! ;)

  • JeroenZM #3 8 months ago

    Just goes to show how much work goes into these movies. At least Anderson gets to nail Jovovich though, good for him

  • ZuluHero #4 8 months ago

    If you mix it with a red Urb though its even better.

  • Thunderbolt #5 8 months ago

    Can he run and shoot at the same time though?

  • Architect_z #6 8 months ago

    He's too smiley to play Leon!

  • darkmorgado #7 8 months ago

    They should have cast my ex.

    a) he looks like Leon
    b) I'd pay real money to see his face chewed off by a zombie

  • -cerberus- #8 8 months ago

    The only reason these horrible movies are being made is because people pay to watch them. Stop the madness, damn it!

  • RawNinjaKid #9 8 months ago

    At least they haven't hired someone with a receding hairline! i.e. Wesker!!

  • Miths #10 8 months ago

    I've always wondered if all the RE movie haters are people who are fans of the game series? Because obviously adaptions of a popular franchise from one media into another virtually always end up disappointing the original fans.
    I'm not an RE game fan - or rather I've never even played more than a few early bits and pieces of RE4 and RE5 - so (much like the Silent Hill movie where I had absolutely zero exposure to the games) in my opinion the movies have been perfectly entertaining and fully in line with what I expect from mindless but fun action movies (well, the second movie was somewhat worse than the other three).
    And adding Milla Jovovich to the mix means that I suddenly like them a fair bit more than the average action/horror movie.

    And RE: Afterlife still being one of the most impressive live action 3D showcases (both at the cinema and at home with the 3D Blu-ray) certainly didn't hurt my mostly positive opinion of the movie series either.

  • photoboy #11 8 months ago

    Fail. Jensen Ackles or don't bother.

  • Kami #12 8 months ago

    The Blue Urb gets absolutely no love these days...

  • DannyXanny #13 8 months ago

    Iam with you Miths i dont know what people expect with a zombie action tie in this aint shawshank people. Iam a fan of res games ive played them all apart from them shitty shoot at the screen ones and i think the movies are more than entertaining enough to enjoy.
    Edited by DannyXanny at 29/09/11 @ 21:46

  • Kami #14 8 months ago

    They're not great movies either (the first one was passable but it's gone to hell since then). It's Paul W S Anderson - who claims he loves the games - giving it all a bit of an air of fanfiction, and perhaps that's the thing most people object to. He's taking what he knows - and loves - and making it kind of work for his own ego. It's kind of like a FF7 fanfiction where Cloud gets into Aerith's dress only to find out she has a cock - but no matter, he's so up for that too because he's happy to slip into a dress and be a girly girl for the night...

    They won't really please fans of the game that much for that reason. The movies make loads of money, but they're for a different audience. And I'm pretty sure everyone already knows that. The market is there - we can see that. But the movies are so tenuously and loosely based on the games that you could call it something else, rename some of the characters and yeah, it would still work.

    The only scary thing for me as a fan of the games is that Capcom are rumoured to be absorbing Alice into the games. Someone MUST stop this. Bribery. Sexual favours. Blackmail. Extortion. We must NEVER allow that Mary Sue (because that is what Alice is in laymans terms - the best Mary Sue in modern cinema!) to come into the series.

    That's what Ada is for.

  • metroid455 #15 8 months ago

    Look I love Resident evil but these Hollywood abominations need to stop PLEEEEAASSEE!!!

  • PixelPirate #16 8 months ago

    The Resident Evil game plot makes the movie plot look like a work of shakespeare.

    Seriously people need to stop paying to see these.

  • ModishNouns #17 8 months ago

    Thanks for noticing VG247? It was posted in your own forum before that article hit.

    /huffs

  • Porko_Rossi #18 8 months ago

    Maybe in years to come someone will decide to make resident evil films properly....