The Monster Hunter film now has a director and it’s Paul W.S. Anderson, director of the Resident Evil film series.
Back in September, Capcom revealed that a Monster Hunter film was in the works. The announcement was made at Tokyo Game Show and at the time, not much was known about the project. Capcom’s Resident Evil franchise has seen amazing success in its film adaptations and with Resident Evil: The Final Chapter releasing in January, it was only fitting that the same director, Paul W.S. Anderson, would be signed onto the project.
While there are no specific plot details about the Monster Hunter film, what we do know is that Anderson has written the script and that he and his producing partner Jeremy Bolt are shopping for a studio and have VFX renderings of creatures for the film. We also know that a Toronto-based VFX studio, Mr. X, made the renderings and are in partnership with Anderson and Bolt.
In an interview with Deadline, Anderson and Bolt spoke about how they became attached to the project.
“We started the process and talking to Capcom about five years ago.” Said Anderson. “They really wanted to be sure that we were going to do it justice because it’s their top money earner now. It’s huge, a cultural phenomenon in Japan and it’s giant in China, where it’s an online game that has 15 million paying users. If you do the math, the movie could potentially be the biggest of the year in China and Japan, where people line up around the block when new games are released. It has sold 38 million copies so far, which is bigger than Resident Evil was when we started the adaptation of that franchise.”
Bolt added, “They’ve said what they love about Paul is he understood the spirit of the game and expanded and made more of it. Commercially and creatively, they really respect that. They are trusting us again, on Monster Hunter.”
Anderson teased that he had two films planned for Monster Hunter, that shooting would take place in China or South Africa and that the films would have a budget similar to the Resident Evil franchise. Anderson also spoke about why he was so eager to get started on this new endeavor.
“What I love about Monster Hunter is the incredibly beautiful, immersive world they’ve created. It’s on the level of like a Star Wars movie, in terms of world creation,” he said. “There are no real central characters so it’s a bit like when we first approached Resident Evil and imposed our own characters and story on that world. I think this is a perfect IP for us to do exactly that same thing again.”
There is currently no information regarding when the Monster Hunter film will begin shooting or when the film will be released. There’s also no stars attached to the movie yet.
