Paul W.S. Anderson is hard at work on his next film, Resident Evil: Afterlife, but he’s also got some big plans for future films, most notably The Three Musketeers 3D. Omelete is reporting in from the Resident Evil set with details on the 3D adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’ classic novel straight from Anderson himself.

Anderson said he’ll reteam with Resident Evil producer Jeremy Bolt and be working with an $80 million budget. That might sound like a lot, but it’s not enough to shoot the entire film in 3D. They might have to resort to 2D when it comes to capturing horse racing chases and convert them to 3D in postproduction. Anderson plans to keep Athos, Porthos, Aramis and D’Artagnan in the 18th century but give the story a contemporary feel with a heavy dose of action and romance. It’ll be ‘a new telling’ of Dumas’ story.

The film hasn’t nabbed a domestic distribution deal, but Constantin Films is on board to finance. Collider points out that this project is monumental for Constantin because it’ll mark their biggest budgeted film ever. Also, partnering with Constantin will free Anderson of studio pressure thus granting him creative freedom. Casting is currently underway and production is set to commence in September 2010.

It’s hard to get excited about this project unless you’re really into the Musketeers or Anderson’s work. Do we really need a new Three Musketeers film? Does it really have to be in 3D? Is the guy responsible for the Resident Evil movies the one to do it? $80 million seems like a lot of money to bet on a guy known for sci-fi films and videogame adaptations. He’s got a following, but this is something that’ll bank on mass appeal. This ‘new telling’ better be pretty damn innovative.