If you follow video games, you’ve probably heard of Monster Hunter. The series, from video game company Capcom, has sold over 48 million units across 40 titles since its debut in 2004. The action role-playing games find the player in the role of a Hunter, a bad-ass (usually with an unrealistically huge weapon) who fights giant monsters in a fantasy-themed setting. Players typically fight the monsters in a cooperative setting, placing traps, killing baddies, collecting in-game loot (resources that lead to better weapons, armor, etc), and completing quests from local townspeople.
Well, the man responsible for the billion dollar Resident Evil series of films (which also originated as a series of video games from Capcom) now has grand plans for a Monster Hunter movie. That man is Paul W.S. Anderson, and he has already cast his Resident Evil lead, Milla Jovovich, in his new film. Anderson is taking on writing and directing duties for the movie, which will be released by Constantin Films and yet-to-be-announced partners in Japan and China.
Per Variety, production is set to begin in September of this year, and they will be filming in and around Cape Town, South Africa. The budget for the film is reportedly $60 million, and the special effects team will be Toronto’s Technicolor-owned Mr. X, the same company that works on the Resident Evil franchise.
Monster Hunter is envisioned as the beginning of a series of films, so if the first is successful you can expect them to ride this gravy train until they have exhausted every idea on how Jovovich can creatively slay enormous creatures. If you can’t wait to see Jovovich stylishly kill things in slow-motion in Monster Hunter, you can catch her in James Franco’s Future World (releasing on May 25), Alan Yuen’s The Rookies, and the new version of Hellboy.
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