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Hollywood Live-Action Monster Hunter Film Casts Tony Jaa, Ron Perlman, T.I. Harris

Entertainment news website The Hollywood Reporter reported on Wednesday that Constantin Film's Hollywood live-action film adaptation of CAPCOM's Monster Hunter action game franchise will star martial arts actor Tony Jaa (Ong-Bak film series) alongside the previously announced star Milla Jovovich (Resident Evil movie franchise).

The site also revealed on Tuesday that Ron Perlman (Hellboy film series, Pacific Rim, Sons of Anarchy) and T.I. Harris (Ant-Man, Ant-Man and the Wasp) are also cast in the film.

Jovovich will play a character named Artemis, and Jaa is playing a man called "The Hunter." Pearlman plays a man named Admiral, who is the leader of The Hunter's crew. Harris plays a sniper named Link.

The film is budgeted at around US$60 million, and will shoot in and around Cape Town in South Africa. The film is starting production in October. Constantin Film stated in May that it was in "the final stages of negotiation" to partner with “a big company” in Japan, and another in China. The Japanese and Chinese companies each will take equity in the project. Constantin Film is otherwise funding the film itself.

Martin Moszkowicz, Chairman of the Executive Board of Constantin Film, said at Cannes that Constantin Film is planning the project as a film series, adding, "we are in the business of brand creation."

Constantin Film produced all six films in the Paul W.S. Anderson-directed Resident Evil franchise. Anderson is also directing the Monster Hunter film, and his Impact Pictures producing partner Jeremy Bolt is producing. Impact Pictures released a concept picture for the film (seen right) in November 2016, showing a dragon at Los Angeles International Airport.

The Hollywood Reporter stated on Thursday the film's story is currently unclear. Impact Pictures previously described the film as follows:

For every Monster, there is a Hero. An ordinary man in a dead end job discovers that he is actually the descendant of an ancient hero. He must travel to a mystical world to train to become a Monster Hunter, before the mythical creatures from that world destroy ours.

The story was also previously described as featuring an ordinary person traveling to the Monster Hunter world before coming back to the real world to fight an "epic battle in and around LAX."

Anderson wrote a draft for the film's script. Mr. X is producing the special effects, and the company's president Dennis Berardi is credited as producer. Anderson stated that he sees the film and the game's world as an "opportunity to have a cinematic universe."

Source: The Hollywood Reporter's Heat Vision blog (Borys Kit), link 2 (Borys Kit)