Japanese 'Monster Hunter' game getting Hollywood treatment

Blockbuster videogame franchise Monster Hunter is one step closer to becoming a blockbuster movie, according to a senior producer at its Japanese publisher, Capcom. 

A Hollywood adaptation of the Monster Hunter series is underway, Capcom producer Ryozo Tsujimoto told his audience during a stage presentation at the Tokyo Game Show (per Games Talk, via Gematsu.) 

The executive did not provide further details, only to explain that it wasn't directly related to Monster Hunter Stories. 

That upcoming release, set for an early October debut at Japanese retail, is itself derived from weekly anime spin-off Monster Hunter Stories: Ride On, starting the same month. 

But the core franchise of Monster Hunter games is not quite as cute as that latest effort, as players cut down fearsome creatures using oversized weaponry. 

Videogame adaptations have been a running theme in 2016 cinema, with Warcraft passing global box office returns of US$430mil (RM1.77bil), The Angry Birds Movie close to US$350mil (RM1.44bil), and Assassin's Creed, starring Michael Fassbender, due December. 

Tsujimoto's brief acknowledgement lends itself well to speculation, with several directors having previous involvement with Capcom properties. 

British director Paul W.S. Anderson has overseen six separate adaptations of Capcom's seminal survival horror series Resident Evil, with his most recent and last entry to the movie franchise to be Resident Evil: The Final Chapter in a few months' time. 

Despite the critical reception, each of his Resident Evil efforts have recovered their production budgets several times over, and involvement in films like Alien vs Predator and Pompeii carry with them the experience of filming monsters and large-scale spectacles. 

Japanese director Takashi Miike, well known for not only his ability to create violent tour-de-forces such as Izo and Ichi the Killer, has a range that extends to much lighter fare such as Zebraman and The Bird People in China. 

He's also got previous experience with Capcom, having directed 2012's live-action film version of courtroom procedural Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, but having Miike working with the Hollywood system for Monster Hunter would be an exception to the auteur's lengthy career history to date. 

Another recent Capcom venture has been the two Dead Rising films of 2015 and 2016, based on the zombie apocalypse franchise of the same name. 

Both were produced by Legendary Pictures and, fitting a looser definition of what a Hollywood movie adaptation might be, were released digitally rather than in cinemas, through the Crackle channel. 

Like the Resident Evil films' Screen Gems, Crackle is part of Sony Pictures Entertainment, and it could be that Capcom has a similar treatment in mind for Monster Hunter. — AFP Relaxnews