British director Paul WS Anderson turned the hit videogame franchise Resident Evil into a long-running film series in the early 2000s, and he’s set to do the same thing again with another property owned by Japanese publisher, Capcom.
While it’s not quite as colossal on these shores, Monster Hunter is a huge deal in Japan; since its inception in 2004, the action RPG series has spawned no fewer than five spin-offs across a range of platforms, and numerous spin-offs, which range from quick-fix smartphone games to the MMORPG, Monster Hunter Frontier Online.
As its name implies, Monster Hunter is a sprawling fantasy game that involves protecting townsfolk from marauding creatures. It’s logical fodder, then, for an energetic special effects movie – something Anderson’s traded in for several years now. Variety reports that, like the last of the Resident Evil adaptations, Anderson’s Monster Hunter will be shot in South Africa, with the budget set at a fairly moderate $60m.
The Monster Hunter movie will also star Milla Jovovich – the Resident Evil actress who also happens to be Anderson’s wife. It’s not yet clear, however, whether she’ll play the lead or a supporting role. Production is set to begin this September, with the project funded by a coalition of companies, including Constantin Films and a couple of outfits in China and Japan; unsurprisingly, it’ll be the first in a series of movies if it’s a success.
The Resident Evil franchise was never what you’d call a critical darling, but it spawned no fewer than seven movies and made well over a billion dollars globally – not bad, when you consider that the whole series was shot for less than $300m, which is about the going rate for a major summer superhero flick these days.
More on Monster Hunter as we get it.