Back in 2012, director Paul W.S. Anderson revealed his interest in bringing the Capcom game series Monster Hunter to the big screen, but since then no news has come through on his involvement (though a Capcom producer did confirm a film was in development during the Tokyo Game Show). Now, speaking with Deadline, the Resident Evil and Mortal Kombat director has opened up about the feature which he hopes to be his next film.
The Monster Hunter series, of which there have been numerous games since it debuted ten years ago, is largely a plotless game that tasks players with simply hunting down monsters and customizing their own heroes. That in mind, Anderson revealed the logline for the film, which reads:
“For every Monster, there is a Hero. An ordinary man in a dead end job discovers that he is actually the descendant of an ancient hero. He must travel to a mystical world to train to become a Monster Hunter, before the mythical creatures from that world destroy ours.”
He elaborated on how the game’s protagonist-free premise is helpful toward what they’re creating.
“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,” Anderson said. “I think this is a perfect IP for us to do exactly that same thing again. The Monster Hunter world includes these huge deserts that make the Gobi Desert look like a sandbox, and they have ships that sail through the sand. These full on galleons, but rather than sailing on the ocean waves, they sail through waves of sand…You’re fighting these giant creatures, some as big as a city block. They live underneath the Earth and when they burst out, it’s like the best of Dune. You also have these flying dragons, giant spiders, the most wonderful creatures.”
Anderson further revealed a big change they’ll be making for the film, saying it will take place in both the real world and the “Monster Hunter world.”
“The final act comes back to our world and it’s basically this epic battle in and around LAX. Then at the end we’re suddenly confronted with the fact that the mythological creatures of our world have come back to wreak vengeance. So we definitely have the second film where that would be planned out.”
You can check out a piece of concept art for the film’s LAX battle in the gallery below!
Anderson has currently written the script for the film, which he also plans to direct. He will also produce the film with his partner Impact Pictures partner Jeremy Bolt. His next film will be Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, his fourth of the six films in the franchise, due in theaters January 27, 2017.
Monster Hunter
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Monster Hunter
