The Monster Hunter series will be receiving a live-action movie adaptation, Capcom has confirmed.
The idea of a Monster Hunter movie taking shape in one way or another has actually been circulating for some time now; back in 2012, British director and producer Paul W.S. Anderson revealed that a film conversion was being planned, and just a couple of years ago he confirmed that talks were still ongoing. Now, Capcom has announced that the movie has indeed been slated for production, and has even offered up some details on its plot and the people involved.
Firstly, Paul W. S. Anderson - who just so happens to be the man behind the Resident Evil film series, too - is acting as both writer and director. Constantin Film will be the studio behind the movie's production (which has previously released the likes of Asphaltgorillas and Sauerkraut Koma), while Japanese company Toho will distribute the film in Japan.
Unsurprisingly, the film will be based on the Monster Hunter game franchise, centring around "two protagonists who come from different worlds and must cooperate in fighting monsters in order to survive." At the moment, any particular timeframe for when the movie will begin recording is unknown.
While video game movie tie-ins have a history of generating generally negative responses from viewers and critics, Anderson's Resident Evil films stand among the few that have gone on to be commercial successes.
Are you intrigued by the potential of a Monster Hunter movie? Would you watch it? Let us know with a comment below.
[source gamesindustry.biz]
Comments 59
Well let's just hope they don't beat this to death like they did with the Resident Evil movie franchise. The first 2 were decent but, 5 movies was ridiculous. It became redundant after a while.
Constantine Film... (which has previously released the likes of Asphaltgorillas and Sauerkraut Koma)
Not to mention this guy hasn't directed a competent film in over 15 years? Yeah...
Prepare for hot garbage. 😂
Can’t wait to see what main role he gives to his wife!
Every franchise needs overpowered self inserts.
Resident Evil wasn't so bad, I guess?
"Firstly, Paul W. S. Anderson..."
Cheque, please.
Dammit, I was hoping they would move away from the whole hero from another world concept and just focus on the MH world in itself. Just reading the quest descriptions in GU hints at all kinds of rich lore that could be explored without some hokey American action hero transported to another dimension nonsense.
But who knows...maybe it'll be good...
I wish it was cancelled. Especially with Paul W.S. Anderson at the helm. I wish it died along side his cancelled Castlevania film.
I have 0 faith in this. People don’t usually play MH for a narrative, they play it for the gameplay loop. Without that, I don’t think this movie can work.
Hell NO !!
And they haven't even linked the horrible dialogue excerpts or the cg monster fight... It only gets worse from here...
No more video game movies. It's bad enough as it is with the oversaturated superhero movies loaded with product placement that are designed to appeal to Chinese audiences, where bad American movies go to die.
All I can ask is, where is the art? Where are the David Lynches, the Stanley Kubricks, the Martin Scorceses, the Vince Gilligans, the Alfred Hitchcocks, the Roman Polanskis? Everything must be blandly mass appeal and spelled out in as obvious a way as possible to cater to an increasingly distracted audience incapable of paying attention longer than five seconds to a scene that isn't composed of grown adults and predictable diversity hires in CGI-enhanced costumes set against green-screen backdrops tritely explaining the convoluted plot, all of it underscored by incessant victim-of-loudness-war orchestral scores in every scene regardless of appropriateness sequenced quickly and without soul using the usual sample libraries in Pro Tools. It is the same old can of beans with different flavors every time.
There is no more film industry, and it is no surprise the majority of art in film has moved to television and streaming services with the likes of contemporary classic shows such as Better Call Saul, Breaking Bad, Mad Men, pre-final season House Of Cards, etc.
Well, if this was going to happen - it would be now. Cash in on the MH: World wave.
I don’t know how they’ll weave in drinking several potions before detonating a bomb barrel at close range for an attack buff, but if they don’t the fandom will not show up.
I hope it is good, but video game movies hardly are. On top of this, monster hunter isn't really about story so writing a movie might be a bit challenging.
For gods sake Paul W. S. Anderson is the most incompetent director I've ever had the misfortune to watch a movie from. He butchered the Resident Evil films beyond belief and did the same with Alien vs Predator, this film will be terrible
Prediction: It'll be awful.
@Anti-Matter I completely agree...
Also, I wanted to apologize for the other day. I shouldn't have said anything.
I'm sorry for dissing your English, man.
I mean you really can't go wrong with Monster Hunter in terms of story, considering there is barely any in the main games. It really can just be 'beat monster face in' and still be entirely accurate to the franchise.
@Dualmask They could probably build a movie around story elements of MH4 to be honest. That one revolved around the impact of a virus on the wild life and culminated in a fight against the origin of that virus (Gore Magala). As people get sick and monsters get more vicious the guild sends a specialized team consisting of comic relief, the jock, the heroine, etc as they do battle against fantastical beasts of varying sizes, oddness and all-around viciousness. Insert the Felynes doing odd and hilarious things to add more MH flavor.
Can Paul W.S. Anderson make a successful movie without using (and gutting?) an existing franchise?
@Ernest_The_Crab They really don't have to reference any of the monster hunter games. It wasn't until 4 and World where they started somewhat connecting the games, and the games usually take place in unspecific periods of time in relation to each other.
They could really write about just about anything and it would be fine as long as it's not absurdly dumb.
well this is going to be a masterpiece
Nobody wants this.
I really, really hope it starts with "My name is Alice. I am a Monster Hunter."
But yeah, with Anderson at the hełm, this movie's doomed.
Cya
Raziel-chan
U know what I think. This will be absolute 🐉+💩.
Noooo
Wouldn't it be great if ACTUAL FANS could make a big movie like this?...I was excited back then, but then I saw what the story was going to be. Yeah, it's gonna be crap.
Well, the only way this could be worse is if this was directed by Uwe Boll...
"News just in, Paul W.S. Anderson is actually producing the movie & Uwe Boll directs.."
The more I read about this, the more I think it will be terrible. There better be adorable felynes/palicoes though.
Mortal Kombat - Crap
Event Horizon - Crap
Soldier - Crap
Resident Evil - Crap
Alien Vs Predator - Crap
Death Race - Crap
Resident Evil: Afterlife - Crap
The 3 Musketeers - Utterly Terrible
Resident Evil: Retribution - Crap
Resident Evil: The Final Chapter - Crap
I'm not holding out much hope on Monster Hunter. The Three Musketeers is possibly one of the worst movies I've ever seen.
Meh... This could work, a movie can be made if done right.
Would do a lot better than some silly Megaman movie
@Ernest_The_Crab I was thinking something more hero's journey-ish. Make the story about a new hunter(s) in town who's learning the ropes. Through his/her/their eyes the world is introduced and things slowly escalate. After an opening set piece where most of the Ace Hunters are sent packing by an unseen threat (Rathalos because he's the signature monster of the franchise), there's dread amongst the villagers, etc.
Enter the new hunter who shows promise but knows little of hunting. They're hotblooded and want to get to the action but get annoyed at being sent to gather mushrooms and herbs and kelbi horns, but during yet another miserable gathering mission, they see signs of something more powerful, and they get attacked by, say, Great Jaggi. After a struggle, the hero overcomes it and impresses everyone enough to join the team of Ace Hunters on their investigation to find the Rathalos.
Cue montage of hunting other beasts, with cameos of any number of cool monsters from the series, and weapons and armor improving.
Then the middle of the film gets to the big epic showdown with Rathalos. It's a struggle for all but they eventually win thanks to the hero's timely use of flash bombs. They capture Rathalos and then they see it...
Either signs of the virus like you said, or perhaps traces of evidence that an elder dragon is forthcoming (because every MH plot culminates with the overcoming of the elder dragon.
At this point the low point of the film ensues when the hero thinks they're strong enough to go after the elder alone, then the team catches up to him and his brazenness gets one of the Aces injured or killed. He's kicked off the team and has to prove himself all over again. But while he's lamenting he figures out something that will lead to the elder dragon's ultimate defeat, but in order to get the chance, he has to first humble himself and redeem himself, and so on.
Etc., etc., eventually all is well and the team is together just in time to face off against Lao/Shagaru or something equally powerful. After an epic struggle, the final battle is over and all is well.
Then after the credits start to roll, hints of more powerful beasts emerging from the shadows, like Zorah Magdaros, show in the background. Or something.
...That just kind of popped in my head.
Hell no. I’m with @Anti-Matter. I just read a article which I have no interest in and commented that I won’t watch it. I’m angry. Garbage 18 rated games.
I'm in. People seem to think the Resident Evil games, all of them, are well written? They're horrible schlock. They're a parody of zombie movies getting progressively more ridiculous. Guess what the movies are. Might not follow the plot of the games, but it sure has the same vibe. No, they aren't "good" movies in the sense they'll never win any awards, but don't think Paul W.S. Anderson isn't fully self-aware. They're fun to watch and turn your brain off. If you're going into it looking for more than that, you're looking for the wrong thing, in my opinion. Like, what do you want from a Monster Hunter movie? Minimal plot and goofy action sequences, yeah? You'll get that.
Better choice then Mega Man.
If the main character of this movie shows even the tiniest discomfort, then they already have more 'depth' than basically any previous mainline MH character.
@Darthroseman same vibe? they traded horror for over-the-top action (not counting the 5th and 6th game, but who does?). You could essentially have the same movies if you took out all references to Resident Evil and called them Alice in Zombieland.
@Flashman Mortal Kombat was actually pretty good and Event Horizon is a great movie. The rest is though, yeah.
Cya
Raziel-chan
But my god street fighter was amazing
@nintendobynature
@duddy ahahahah perfect
This is going to be a disgrace to the franchise
@Dualmask That would work too. I feel like Gore could fulfill both roles (source of virus and Elder dragon). It's just a juvenile version of Shagaru Magala after all.
They could have some momentary calm before the storm as Gore becomes its Elder Dragon form.
Also sorry @-Green- I was in mid-thought and ended up editing that comment, especially after realized there was indeed a way to write it based on existing plotlines.
Ever since this was announced it was obvious the odds of the movie being anywhere good were worse than snowball's chances in hell, nothing has changed in that regard. It's probably even worse now, because they'll try to immediately set up sequels like everyone else.
@Majora101 Might I suggest Maniac on Netflix? Thoroughly enjoyable quasi-futurist miniseries with Emma Stone and Jonah Hill. But yeah, Hollywood has been a walking corpse for years.
Why does Anderson still gets hired in Hollywood?
@Majora101 My votes on no more BAD video game movies!
@Sharks I'm afraid video games and bad movies are doomed to go hand in hand. I'm struggling to think of one good film based on a video game. I'm sure one could be done, but in today's climate of sequelitis and big budget mass appeal, today is the worst time period in cinema history to expect a truly good film based on a video game, or any really good film for that matter. Expect big names, bad writing, bad music, CGI that future audiences will make fun of, product placement, a focus on sequels/prequels/spin-offs, and lame "OMG" moments for the marketing department to tease in trailers and stills prior to release in hopes of something sticking enough to go viral and bring about increased impression counts.
@Majora101 well, you never know. Hopefully the Mario movie is the first. Fingers crossed!
another franchise going down the toilet and seriously who ask for this.
@Majora101 The problem with Video Game movies is they always try to go off the rails away from the original stories by inserting this heroes from another world crap, instead of straight adapting it like they should. Cause people in Hollywood are too stupid to realize that if they adapted stories from the lore, they would make especially more money.
@PrincessBowsette Monster Hunter isn't going down the toilet because of this...but the movie will suck.
You want to know why horrible movies succeed in the box office is because of stupidity of the moviegoer. If people been more smarter and not spend there money on bad films then films made by Micheal Bay, Roland Emmerich, and Paul Anderson would have crashed and burn easily in the box office.
scarlett johansson has been cast as the monster
@MegaVel91 i didnt mean the game franchise in general.
A monkey with a 10-year-old cell phone camera is better at directing films than Paul WS Anderson.
At least that monkey won't implement 17 different camera cuts for a 1 second scene of someone walking down the street.
Ugh, I have yet to see or hear of a live action adaptation that gets better than "Eh, it was okay."
But why?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2weNM4JtME
@duddy Sure could. Never found the games scary, always felt more like Evil Dead than Dawn of the Dead. You honestly don't think RE4 was over the top campy? You should probably go back and play it again.
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