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Paul W. S. Anderson kind of prefers Monster Hunter’s world to ours, and not just because of the cool weapons
The world of Monster Hunter, is, not surprisingly, full of terrifying monsters. Paul W. S. Anderson, the director of the upcoming film Monster Hunter based on the Capcom video game, however, prefers that world to ours in some ways.
“In many ways think the Monster Hunter world is better than our world,” he said during a conversation on Capcom’s Twitch channel with gamer Social Dissonance. “The creatures are killed, yes, but then you use every part of the creatures; you eat them, you craft with them. So all of that I think is quite admirable as opposed to a world where we just throw so much away.”
Anderson’s love of the Capcom video game was clear at other points of the conversation as well, whether talking about the details that went into creating the monsters (even the toenails!), to the extensive location scouting they did that led them to an isolated part of Africa to shoot the production.
The director was even inspired by a deep-cut video game crossover when developing the new character played by Milla Jovovich in the film. “I was very influenced by a crossover that Monster Hunter had done with Metal Gear Solid,” Anderson told Social Dissonance when asked why he decided to give Jovovich's character a military background. “I thought, this is great imagery to juxtapose; a man with a machine gun and against the creatures. And I also thought, what fun to play with the hubris of the modern world — we put our faith in technology so much. Too much, in fact, in my opinion.”
Anderson also leaned into representing the oversized weaponry that the game is known for while still trying to obey the laws of physics. “It's one thing to play with these weapons when you're playing a video game, and your avatar is made out of pixels and there's no real law of gravity,” Anderson said. “And then it's another thing when you make them for real and you want a human being to swing them around.”
Anderson was quick to point out, however, that actor and Thai martial artist Tony Jaa was more than up to the task of wielding the weapons. “The sword is almost as big as he is — I mean it's huge and it was heavy as well, and within minutes he was twirling it around and doing amazing stuff with it.”
Want to see Jaa, Jovovich, and Ron Perlman hunt some monsters? You don't have much longer to wait — Monster Hunter is currently set to premiere in North America on Dec. 25, 2020.
