A trailer for Resident Evil: Degeneration is now live, offering the general masses the first look at the upcoming CG film. Capcom is producing this in partnership with Sony Pictures; the movie is due out sometime next year.

The first screenshots from Resident Evil 5 have been released, and god damn, they are gorgeous! Check them out in full high-resolution detail:

Capcom has seen both success and failure in creating movie adaptations based on its franchises - Resident Evil has been its most successful franchise in the movie world, whereas the Street Fighter movie released back in 1994 is listed as one of IMDB’s worst 100 movies of all time. The company recently revealed that it has hired Germaine Gioia to serve as Senior VP Licensing in its Los Angeles office, with the aim that she will liaison with Hollywood to find properties that can be turned to movies.

Unknown to us gamers, Gioia was one of the major forces behind THQ. She worked at the-then small GBA software maker into a heavyweight in the industry through strong children’s licenses from Nickeolodeon. She also helped form partnerships between THQ and Nickelodeon that saw games like Tak and the Power of JuJu make it over to TV land and vice versa.

Now, she is working at Capcom to ensure that the company’s franchises turn into strong Hollywood properties, but unlike others, her focus is to involve the creators of the games themselves in the creation of the movies.

“For the near-term, I’m going to look at the game engines that Capcom has and the capabilities internally at the studios and presumably see if there are things we can take advantage of with properties that might do well with recognizable characters or story lines associated with existing game engines,” Gioia said. “But that always doesn’t work, so it might be a while before certain licensed properties that have been developed from the ground up are out in the marketplace.”

The publisher recently announced a new Street Fighter movie based on Chun-li, a skimpily clothed Asian fighter from the game. Capcom has also licensed Onimusha, Devil May Cry and other franchises for movie development.

Two hot new production stills from the upcoming Resident Evil movie can be found over on IGN Filmforce. The stills show off returning star Milla Jovovich (Alice) and series newcomer Ali Larter, who will be portraying Claire Redfield from the game. Here’s a bit on the move:

Resident Evil: Extinction is again based on the wildly popular videogame series and picks up where the last film left off. Alice (Milla Jovovich), now in hiding in the Nevada desert, once again joins forces with Carlos Oliveira (Oded Fehr) and L.J. (Mike Epps), along with new survivors Claire (Ali Larter), K-Mart (Spencer Locke) and Nurse Betty (Ashanti) to try to eliminate the deadly virus that threatens to make every human being undead… and to seek justice. Since being captured by the Umbrella Corporation, Alice has been subjected to biogenic experimentation and becomes genetically altered, with super-human strengths, senses and dexterity. These skills, and more, will be needed if anyone is to remain alive.

Dubbed Resident Evil: Extinction, the movie is scheduled for release next year and is being directed by Russell Mulcahy who’s working off a script by Paul W.S. Anderson, the director of the first (and best) movie in the popular franchise.

According to an article on Gamespot, a Resident Evil game is currently being developed for the Wii. Resident Evil 5, which was announced last year to be in the works for the PS3 and Xbox 360, is still slated to hit the aforementioned consoles, but the Wii game will be a completely “new game in the Resident Evil franchise.”

No further details were announced, but it can be expected that gamers will finally get a chance to fulfill their wish of chainsawing a zombie with the Wiimote.

In an interview with Sci-fi Wire, Milla Jovovich, star of the recently released Ultraviolet, revealed some details on the upcoming Resident Evil movie, the third in the series.

She said that her character Alice, created specifically for the movie series, will have “crazy new powers” in the third installment. As for the script: “it’s awesome,” she says, adding that she can’t say “too much.”

Resident Evil: Extinction will begin shooting this May in Toronto. Paul W.S. Anderson will again write the story and return to the franchise as a director after the first movie.