There's a movie called Monster Hunter scheduled to be released this September 2020, based on the video game series. It was written and directed by Paul W. S. Anderson and stars Milla Jovovich, so hopefully Resident Evil fans are served what they like. But the first official photo for Monster Hunter came out in fall 2019, followed by two official posters this weekend, and now I'm thinking the star of the movie is not Milla Jovovich as Captain Natalie Artemis or even Tony Jaa as The Hunter. It's that sword. It has to be.
The sword is already prominent in that official movie photo, posted above, but check out the poster Milla Jovovich just shared, focusing on her character:
You'd think the sword's name was Milla Jovovich. There's a second poster in her Instagram post, slide over to see Tony Jaa as The Hunter. He doesn't get to hold the sword this time. I do love a clean, simple poster design that doesn't try to cram every character into the mix. So well done there. The images are striking.
I don't happen to play Monster Hunter, but it looks like there are all kinds of swords in use in the game, including the Great Sword. The movie seems to be sticking pretty closely to the game:
Hot damn! The Monster Hunter movie also stars Ron Perlman and T.I. Harris. Milla Jovovich posted a bloody photo with Perlman during filming for the movie back in December 2018:
Milla Jovovich followed that shortly afterward with a long wrap post on December 20, 2018, writing in part:
What an unforgettable experience this has been, meeting some amazing humans, traveling to some of the most unearthly locations. Everyone worked so hard, this was definitely one of the most challenging films I’ve ever made which says a lot, but we all got through it as a team and some of the relationships I’ve made here will hopefully last a lifetime. Thank you to my amazing husband #paulwsanderson for making this film a reality. You worked harder than anyone baby!
She also thanked the incredible cast and crew, and the military advisers for kicking her butt enough to bring Captain Artemis to life.
Back in November 2018, Paul W. S. Anderson talked to /FILM about Monster Hunter, revealing he was a fan of the games long before making this movie:
I became aware of the game 10 years ago. I’ve been a long term fan of Monster Hunter before most people in the west even knew what it was. Partly because I spend a lot of time in Japan and I fell in love with the imagery of the game and started talking to Capcom about it nine years ago. It’s definitely a passion project of mine, nine years in the making.
He said Monster Hunter is not quite like Resident Evil when it comes to creating new characters:
No, the movie has a lot of characters from the video game in it. There’s The Handler and Admiral, Aiden, Aiden’s Handler. We wanted Palico. It’s very much a movie of the video game, but in Monster Hunter you get to create your own character when you go in there. You don’t get to play Lara Craft or Jill Valentine. You get to play your own creation, and there is definitely an element of that in there. Some of the leading characters will be fresh characters but that’s a reflection of what the video game is. It’s definitely a movie that is firmly and fully entrenched in the world of the video game, as you would expect with me having worked with Capcom for nine years on adapting it and bringing it to the screen.
He said the movie leads heavily on the favorite creatures from Monster Hunter: World, but also bringing in some monsters from earlier games:
So I think for fans of Monster Hunter: World, you’ll recognize that world and the characters from that world very much, but also it’ll be a callback to some of the favorite moments and creatures from some of the earlier games, which hopefully will get people excited to check out those earlier games as well because there’s some magnificent imagery and monsters in those earlier games as well that I think a lot of people who have just played Monster Hunter: World may not be aware of.
This will be a big year for Milla Jovovich and Paul W. S. Anderson. Not only do they have Monster Hunter hitting screens this fall, they already welcomed their third daughter a month ago in early February 2020. Monster Hunter is currently expected in theaters on September 4, 2020. Keep up with everything heading to the big screen this year with our 2020 movie release date schedule.
