After months of rumours and reports, Capcom has finally officially announced the Monster Hunter movie, which stars Milla Jovovich and Ron Perlman. Capcom's official announcement states that the movie will feature two heroes who hail from different worlds but must come together to battle against monsters and save the world.
Variety has more details about the plot, including the first mention of one of the characters we'll see: The Admiral. "Along the way, viewers will make new discoveries and encounter familiar faces and beloved characters from the games like the Admiral," Capcom said.
A story in The Hollywood Reporter contains even more information about the plot. According to the report, Jovovich will play Artemis, the leader of a United Nations military team. She somehow gets sucked into a different universe featuring monsters.
In this world, Jovovich's character teams up with a character named the Hunter, who is played by Tony Jaa (Furious 7). They work together to close the portal to the dimension to keep the monsters from coming to Earth.
As for the casting news, according to The Hollywood Reporter, Diego Boneta is joining the movie in the role of a member of Artemis' team. Boneta was featured in the Tom Cruise musical Rock of Ages and he will also be seen in the upcoming Terminator reboot.
Monster Hunter franchise producer Ryozo Tsujimoto said in a statement that the film is trying to appeal to fans of the franchise and newcomers at the same time.
The film is being directed by Paul W.S. Anderson, who directed the previous Resident Evil movies starring Jovovich, his wife, that collectively made more than $1 billion at the box office. Anderson previously spoke at a high level about why he thinks the franchise is so appealing.
"What I love about Monster Hunter is the incredibly beautiful, immersive world they've created. It's on the level of like a Star Wars movie, in terms of world creation," he said. "There are no real central characters so it's a bit like when we first approached Resident Evil and imposed our own characters and story on that world. I think this is a perfect IP for us to do exactly that same thing again."
The Monster Hunter movie will also star T.I. Harris, the hip hop artist who became an actor and most recently was featured in Marvel's Ant-Man movies. Filming on the Monster Hunter film is scheduled to begin this month in South Africa.
The latest Monster Hunter game, Monster Hunter World, has been a massive success. By Capcom's latest count, the Xbox One, PS4, and PC game has passed 10 million copies shipped.
The Monster Hunter movie is one of two major films based on a Capcom franchise currently in development; a Mega Man film is also in the works, but very little is known about it.
