Milla Jovovich recently updated her Twitter account telling the world that the first trailer for Resident Evil: Afterlife will be shown alongside A Nightmare on Elm Street, which will be released on April 30th.

The fourth Resident Evil outing reunites Jovovich with director Paul W.S. Anderson who directed the first film (he continued to produce and write the sequels). Resident Evil: Afterlife will also star Ali Larter and Wentworth Miller, and will be 3D.

Here’s the official synopsis:

In a world ravaged by a virus infection, turning its victims into the Undead, Alice continues on her journey to find survivors and lead them to safety. Her deadly battle with the Umbrella Corporation reaches new heights, but Alice gets some unexpected help from an old friend. A new lead that promises a safe haven from the Undead leads them to Los Angeles, but when they arrive the city is overrun by thousands of Undead and Alice and her comrades are about to step into a deadly trap.

Wentworth Miller, that guy from Prison Break, has joined Milla Jovovich and Ali Larter in Resident Evil: Extinction.

From Heat Vision:

Wentworth Miller has come aboard to star in “Resident Evil: Afterlife,” the fourth installment of the popular film series from Screen Gems and Constantin Film, which begins production this week in Toronto. The movie will be shot and released in 3-D.

Miller joins a returning Milla Jovovich as the zombie-fighting heroine, as well as Ali Later and Spencer Locke, both of whom reprise their roles from “Resident Evil: Extinction.”

Also returning is Paul W. S. Anderson, who hops into the chair as writer, director and producer. Anderson wrote, directed and produced the first “Evil” in 2002, but acted as writer and producer for the two sequels.

An 8 week shoot is currently under-way, which gives them roughly a year to complete the film as Sony has set the release date for September 17th 2010.

Around two weeks ago we heard that Paul W.S. Anderson would be returning to direct Resident Evil: Afterlife and that filming was planned for September this year. What was not revealed, however, is that it will be in 3D. Milla Jovovich told ShockTillYouDrop that little nugget of info during an interview today:

“There’s a great script and it’s going to be pretty wild. It’s going to be in 3D,” she said diplomatically. “They figured out a lot of stuff. We start shooting in September, they’ve got it all figured out at this point.”

Anderson has really been getting prepared to make his return to directing the franchise since the first movie, especially with the 3D factor being added to the equation. “He’s been really studying it and seeing all the different things they have and watching every 3D movie ever made pretty much,” Milla told us. “Especially for a movie like this, because it’s wild and a lot of action and a lot of potential for 3D to use the medium at its best. Paul has been going to every 3D company and he’s now signed a deal to go with Jim Cameron’s 3D company–they did ‘Avatar’–It should be pretty interesting. I’ve never actually seen a 3D movie.”

James Cameron and his company spent years developing “3D virtual cameras which would produce stereoscopic 3D images simulating human sight” for Avatar, and the technology is supposed to bring 3D out of the ‘kid movie gimmick’ phase and revolutionize movies forever. That’s what we’ve been told anyway. We’ll have to wait till December to see if the technology achieves that, but with more and more movies being filmed in 3D it looks like we’ll be seeing more of it in the future anyhow.

According to Production Weekly Paul W.S. Anderson will be returning to direct another Resident Evil film. Anderson took the reigns for the first film back in 2002 but decided to take a step back and just write the sequels, opting instead to direct AVP: Alien vs. Predator and Death Race. Resident Evil: Afterlife is scheduled to begin an 8 week shoot starting from September 28th in Toronto, which gives them roughly a year to complete the film as Sony has set the release date for September 17th 2010.

Update: From Shocktillyoudrop:

ShockTillYouDrop.com just talked exclusively to Paul W.S. Anderson, who revealed that Resident Evil: Afterlife will be released in 3D and will kick-off a new trilogy!

Anderson, who will write and direct, told us that the fourth film in the franchise will have the largest budget of all the films so far.

Milla Jovovich will return as Alice in “Afterlife,” opening September 17, 2010. You can also expect some returning characters from the previous films and new characters from the video games.

Exactly one year ago we heard that director Paul W.S. Anderson was talking to Sony about making a fourth Resident Evil film. Resident Evil: Extinction tripped it’s budget so i’m sure it didn’t take much convincing, and now we have word that it may have a title, Resident Evil: Afterlife, and that it may be released next year.

From ShockTillYouDrop:

Late last year, Paul W.S. Anderson revealed he was indeed writing another film. Capcom was getting involved. Everyone, as he said, was “excited.” Well, we’ve just learned from a studio insider that Sony is looking to get Resident Evil: Afterlife into theaters by September 17, 2010. That’s according to an internal memo circulating through the offices there.

Will Anderson direct? Unsure. Will Milla Jovovich be back? I think it would be safe to say yes considering the last entry ended on – SPOILER ALERT – Alice clones getting ready to seek revenge on the Umbrella Corporation which was holed up in Tokyo.

If they are indeed looking at a September 2010 release date then we should be hearing more developments over the upcoming weeks and months.