Anderson and Jovovich, who are married, have worked together on many films including all six Resident Evil titles. That’s obviously no coincidence, as all Resident Evil films were made by production company Constantin Film. Like with Resident Evil, Constantin has also licensed Capcom’s Monster Hunter. Given the success of the Resident Evil films - at least the earlier ones - it’s no surprise that Constantin went out of its way to bring back both Anderson and Jovovich for this next video game adaptation.

Constantin will also be bringing back visual effects company Mr. X, which only further cements Monster Hunter’s likely similarities to Resident Evil in form and style. That may not be popular among fans of the franchise hoping for a more true-to-nature adaptation, but unfortunately, Capcom doesn’t appear to have any direct influence on the films.

Monster Hunter has very quickly become a hot commodity. Monster Hunter World launched in January and has already become Capcom’s best-selling game ever. And Monster Hunter World’s PC launch remains later this year. If that wasn’t enough, just this past week Capcom announced its first Monster Hunter title for the Nintendo Switch. Its success is all but assumed.

While it’s certainly not confirmed, it’s more than likely that Monster Hunter’s successful 2018 directly influenced Constantin Films’ decision to start production quickly. But it begs the question: why not attempt to stay true to the source material? Here’s the official description of the film, which has clearly changed since it was provided in 2016, given Jovovich’s casting:

Monster Hunter is reportedly planned to be a multiple-film series, so Constantin and Anderson will have every opportunity they want to explore the game’s concept as they like. True to source or not, the director and production company have a history of proven success. Success doesn’t necessarily imply a positive reception within the video game community, however.

Monster Hunter is planned to begin production in September later this year.

Source: Variety