Star of the Resident Evil film series, Milla Jovovich, is now set to lead another video game franchise onto the big screen in the form of Monster Hunter.
Variety‘s reporting that the Ukrainian-born actress will star in the Constantin Film production, which will be directed by Paul W.S. Anderson. Slated to begin shooting in September later this year, Monster Hunter will be working with a reported budget of approximately $60 million.
Apparently, Constantin will partner with “a big company” in Japan, and another in China, both of whom will take equity in the project. According to Moszkowicz, these deals are “in the last stages of negotiation.” Apart from that, however, the German-based company will finance Monster Hunter itself.
Like Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, also directed by Anderson, Monster Hunter will shoot in South Africa and more specifically, Cape Town. Speaking about why they chose to film there, Moszkowicz said the following:
“The crews are great there and, at least for a European company, it’s easy to get there: Same time zone, overnight flights. We are very much in a comfort zone of production.”
Monster Hunter, which, like Resident Evil, is based on a Capcom property, is the best-selling video game of all time for the Japanese game developer/publisher, having shipped 7.9 million copies since late January. Details on which direction Anderson’s hoping to head in with the adaptation are still scarce, but Variety says that it’ll be “highly stylish,” which isn’t too surprising given the director’s previous efforts.
“Paul has proven over and over he does stylish movies. It’s one of his big strong points. He can make a movie look good, is very much into visuals,” Moszkowicz said, before adding that the film is being envisioned as a series.
While the Resident Evil films certainly aren’t critical darlings, they do have their fans and if nothing else, most of them provide some enjoyable, mindless entertainment that on the whole, is perfectly harmless. We imagine that this Monster Hunter adaptation will follow a similar path and as soon as we learn more about it, we’ll be sure to let you know.