It’s been a banner year for Capcom’s previously niche Monster Hunter action-RPG series. Monster Hunter: World became Capcom’s best-selling title in company history, and an animated series was announced last summer, debuting next year on Netflix. This week Capcom has confirmed that Monster Hunter will conquer Hollywood next with a big screen adaptation, confirming Paul W. S. Anderson as director.
“After living and breathing in the universe of Monster Hunter for 14 years we are thrilled with enormous anticipation to see our creations adapted for a theatrical release,” said Monster Hunter Series Producer, Ryozo Tsujimoto “Monster Hunter’s fan base has exploded over the past year with the runaway success of the game Monster Hunter: World. It is our hope long-time fans and new alike will join us on this exciting exploration of the Monster Hunter universe.”
Little is known about the story other than the following snippet:
The film tells the story of two heroes who come from different worlds to defeat a shared danger, the powerful, deadly and magnificent monsters that inhabit the land. Along the way viewers will make new discoveries and encounter familiar faces and beloved characters from the games like the Admiral.
Oddly the cast was not announced but it’s all but been confirmed that Anderson’s frequent star (and wife) Milla Jovovich will star. The pair are most known for making all six Resident Evil movies over the last 15 years. In terms of video game movies, you could do a lot worse than the Resident Evil films, though I confess I haven’t seen them all.
Anderson is also writing the screenplay for Monster Hunter. Principal Photography will begin this month in South Africa and Namibia, and Sony’s Screen Gems will release the film in the US, though a release date has not been announced.
