Monster Hunter Live Action Movie Release Date, Cast, Trailer, Story, News

Updated:

25 Feb 2019

The news of a live action adaptation of a video game isn't all good news for the dedicated fans of the video game series. There's no surprise here, since most movies inspired by video games aren't usually met by positive reception from critics and fans. Now, the production date was announced for a live action adaptation of acclaimed Japanese video game series Monster Hunter. Negative reactions were immediately heard from fans of the video game series. They certainly weren't expecting much based on the critics' negative reception and mixed reactions to the Resident Evil live action movies.

Monster Hunter Live Action Movie Release Date

Since the movie will start production in September 2018, no official release date has been announced yet. Resident Evil live action series director Paul W.S. Anderson will be directing Monster Hunter.

Monster Hunter Live Action Movie Story

According to director Paul W.S. Anderson's interview with Deadline published back in November 2016, Monster Hunter's concept will be about this:

"The central characters are very relatable American characters. You take a person from the ordinary world who thinks they’re in a dead end job, they have no future, they feel like their life’s a failure, it’s going nowhere, like Keanu Reeves in The Matrix. It’s about a normal American who gets dragged into this parallel world, this Monster Hunter world. Then eventually the parallel world ends up coming to our world. So you have the creatures from the Monster Hunter world invading our world."

Monsters from the "parallel world" will find a way into the modern world. (screenshot from Mr. X's 2016 Demo Reel)

Monster Hunter Live Action Movie Cast

As of now, there aren't enough details on who will be included in the cast of Monster Hunter, aside from Anderson's wife and Resident Evil live action star Milla Jovovich. She portrayed a woman named Alice in the Resident Evil live action series. According to Anderson, Alice was a figure who can represent those people who haven't played the video games. Although she was not a character from the video game series, she became involved in its universe. Alice was a product of an experiment by the video game's evil corporation named Umbrella.

Milla Jovovich's character in Monster Hunter is yet to be revealed, although she will most likely play one of the film's lead characters.

Milla Jovovich portrayed a character named Alice in the first Resident Evil live action movie. Alice was not a character in the Resident Evil video game series.

Monster Hunter Live Action Movie Demo Reel (No Official Trailer Yet)

There isn't an official trailer for the movie yet, but a 2016 demo reel was uploaded in YouTube by special effects studio named Mr. X, which also worked on the Resident Evil live action movies. In the demo reel, Monster Hunter's flagship monster Rathalos breaks into a building and fights with a Gore Magala.

Monster Hunter Live Action Movie News

Although the film's production date was recently announced, it was revealed in an earlier interview back in November 2016, that Anderson has already acquired the rights for a Monster Hunter live action movie adaptation, and was already working on the script. Constantin Films, the same German independent production and distribution company behind the Resident Evil live action movies, will be financing most of Monster Hunter. The film will be shot in Cape Town, South Africa, the same shooting venue for Resident Evil: The Final Chapter.

As stated in the article from Variety, Constantin will be in partnership with a "big company" in Japan and in China for the production of Monster Hunter. In 2016, producer Jeremy Bolt also stated that the video game adaptation will be budgeted at about 50 million USD net, which is comparable to the final Resident Evil film's budget.

While the Resident Evil live action movies received low ratings from critics and video game fans, it was the best selling movie series inspired by a video game. The total revenue for the live action movies had a total estimate of 1.2 billion USD in revenue. In his interview with Deadline, Anderson stated that he was a populist director, and he doesn't create movies solely for the fans of the video games, but also for people who have no knowledge of the video game. His Resident Evil live action movies helped boost sales for the Resident Evil video games.

ANDERSON: "It worked out for them, because every time we release a movie, sales of the game spike. When we released the first one, sales on the second game were declining but went up."

He also mentioned that making straight adaptations of a video game would "take away its magic". A straight adaptation of a video game would mean that fans would already know what happens.

"The movie franchise and the video game franchise have really supported one another and have a symbiotic relationship, feeding off one another. We’re not a direct reflection of one another because sometimes what we do deviate from the games. They’re not just straight adaptations. I also feel that’s a mistake others have made. If you’ve played a video game like Resident Evil, it’s important that there are shocks and surprises. You’re playing and then, suddenly, one of the characters gets eaten and you’re like oh! That’s part of its fun. If you just do a straight adaptation of that, how can a gamer enjoy the movie? It’s like watching Alien for the first time and somebody already told you Sigourney Weaver is the only one to survive at the end." - Paul W.S. Anderson

"The movie franchise and the video game franchise have really supported one another and have a symbiotic relationship."

Monster Hunter World, the latest in the Monster Hunter video game series, has already sold a total of 7.9 million units as of March 31, 2018 on the Playstation 4, Playstation 4 Pro, Xbox One, and Xbox One X alone. More sales are expected after the game gets a PC release in the future. Monster Hunter World was listed as a Platinum Game in Capcom's official website and is the company's #1 best-selling game of all time.

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