First teaser with Milla Jovovich in “Monster Hunter”

Monster Hunter is an action role-playing video game for PlayStation 2, and it was released in North America on September 21, 2004. In the game, the player takes the role of an up-and-coming hunter who must accomplish various quests to achieve glory. Armors, weapons, and other items are created from the remains of slain monsters by carving off their horns, scales and bones, as well as from mining for ores in the field. Monster Hunter plays in a similar fashion to Phantasy Star Online allowing the player to team up with up to three other hunters online to take down stronger monsters. The player has to carry one some quests, which are grouped in the categories of “hunting”, “gathering” and “capture”. The game was directed by Kaname Fujioka for Capcom and it had two sequels, Monster Hunter 2, released worldwide throughout 2007 also for the PlayStation 2 platform, and Monster Hunter Tri, released in 2009 for the Nintendo platform Wii.

But you already knew that, right?

The videogame movie adaptation, entitled Monster Hunter (2020), has been written and directed by Paul W.S. Anderson. By far, this is not the first time he has adapted a videogame to the big screen because his are the Resident Evil film saga, Death Race (2008) (on which he stayed as writer and producer of the rest of the titles of the saga) and Mortal Kombat (1995).

The premise for the movie follows an elite military force, led by Lt. Artemis, who falls through a portal into a world populated by giant monsters. They meet a hunter who helps them to survive in the world and fight against the monsters as they seek a way home. They engage in a desperate battle for survival against enormous enemies with incredible powers.

Monster Hunter (2020) is starred by director Paul W.S. Anderson’s professional and real-life partner Milla Jovovich. Together with her, Tony Jaa, T.I., Meagan Good, Diego Boneta, Josh Helman, Jin Au-Yeung, Jannik Schümann, Hirona Yamazaki, Nic Rasenti, Nanda Costa, and Ron Perlman also star.

Constantin Film is producing the film, having planned to start production in late 2017 or early 2018, but later confirmed during the 2018 Cannes Film Festival that production would begin in September 2018 in and around Cape Town and South Africa, with an estimated US$60 million budget. Special effects studio Mr. X VFX, which worked on the Resident Evil films, will also be involved in the production. Constantin worked with several international distributors for release rights, while Constantin will finance the film’s production. Principal photography on the film began on October 5, 2018, in Cape Town, South Africa. Milla Jovovich announced on Instagram that principal photography was completed on December 19, 2018. It is scheduled to be released in the United States on December 30, 2020.

Monster Hunter (2020) is Rated PG-13 for sequences of creature action and violence throughout. You can here watch the first teaser of the movie.