After recently closing the Resident Evil saga with the title Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (2016), the tandem formed by writer-producer-director Paul W.S. Anderson and action superstar Milla Jovovich will be back in the movie adaptation for the popular video game Monster Hunter, which Anderson will write and direct.
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.
This is not the first time Paul W.S. Anderson has adapted a video game for the silver screen. Besides being writer and director of almost all the cinematographic entries in the Resident Evil saga, early in his career he was already in charge of Mortal Kombat (1995). His next project, Event Horizon (1997), blasted him to the league of noticeable horror science fiction directors, a position that was confirmed after his contribution to the Alien and Predator franchises AVP: Alien vs. Predator (2004).
And not much is left to say about Ukraine-born Milla Jovovich, who went from being a teen sensation in Return to the Blue Lagoon (1991), Kuffs (1992) and Chaplin (1992) to becoming a science fiction icon since her appearance in The Fifth Element (1997). Titles like Ultraviolet (2006), .45 (2006), A Perfect Getaway (2009), The Fourth Kind (2009) or Survivor (2015) certify that her mere presence is enough to give life to any action, thriller or sci-fi flick she is involved in.
