Paul W.S. Anderson may never be considered the greatest filmmaker, but he has a niche no other has. He's essentially become the go-to filmmaker for video game adaptations. Between 1995's Mortal Kombat and directing four out of the six Resident Evil films (But overseeing the entire series as a producer), he's about to pull a hat trick with adaptation of the Monster Hunter video game franchise.
The film adaptation (Which was heavily inspired by Capcom's 2018 blockbuster installment Monster Hunter: World) will see Milla Jovovich star as the leader of a UN military team who is transported to another realm populated by monsters. There she meets the Hunter (Played by Tony Jaa) and the two must team up to close a portal to prevent monsters from attacking Earth. And as the film was originally set to be released in theaters next month, before being pushed back to April of next year to accomodate the COVID-19 pandemic that effectively shut down every major theater chain, Anderson confirmed today that the film is completed because of this:
“The movie is 100 percent finished. We were supposed to be releasing it on Labor Day weekend but we pushed it into 2021, but it’s completely done. So it’s coming out April 23 of next year. For me, it’s my most favorite movie I’ve ever made. It has a rather unique look to it.
It’s wonderful escapism and when the world starts to right itself and people can go back to theaters, that’s exactly what people will want and need is to escape for a couple of hours into a different realm. And that’s what Monster Hunter has in spades, and that’s why I was so excited to turn it into a movie.”
In reference to this quote's talk of the film's escapism, Anderson has in the past spoken on the film's visuals, particularly praising the film’s monsters, claiming they are built with even more detail than the dinosaurs of Jurassic World. In that interview he added the reason why being "they look even better, because we shot on real locations in South Africa and Namibia, which gives the animators something to really match into: real wind, real dust, real sun-flare. The monsters are the only CG thing in there.” All this of course remains to be seen and won't be confirmed or disproved until next April.
Monster Hunter co-stars T.I., Ron Perlman, Meagan Good, and Diego Boneta.