'Resident Evil 5' Platform Collapse Injures 16 People

TORONTO – An early-morning platform collapse Tuesday on the Toronto set of Paul W. S. Anderson’s Resident Evil 5 for Sony Screen Gems has sent ten zombie actors to the hospital.

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Constable Wendy Drummond, a spokeswoman for the Toronto Police Services, said a wheeled platform on the movie set at Cinespace Film Studios on Kipling Avenue shifted as un-named actors were moving from one area of the soundstage to another.

The sudden movement led to a platform collapsing and 16 people being left injured. 

The Toronto Star newspaper reported that a dozen actors dressed as zombies had been moving across the soundstage platform when it collapsed.

Ambulance staff and firemen that attended the stage collapse scene in Toronto had to distinguish between the actors' real wounds and the bandages and fake blood that is part of their Resident Evil 5 zombie costumes. 

Drummond said ten of the injured were sent to a local hospital.

None of the injuries are considered life-threatening.

Resident Evil: Retribution 3D, the fifth installment of the video game-to-movie franchise that stars Milla Jovovich, is shooting at Cinespace’s Kipling studio in west Toronto to December 23, ahead of a Sept. 14, 2012 release.

“It is with regret that we confirm this unfortunate accident. The thoughts of everyone involved in the production are with those who have been injured, and we hope that all have a quick and complete recovery,” the film’s co-producers, Davis Films/Impact Pictures and Constantin Film International said in a statement issued Tuesday afternoon. 

The film’s producers said one background actor suffered a cracked rib, a second sustained a stress fracture of the tibia and a third actor faces a possible back injury.

Seven of the injured actors were well enough to return for the Toronto film set on Tuesday, the producers said.

The 2010 picture Resident Evil: Afterlife, also shot by Anderson, grossed around $300 million internationally.