Here Be Monsters

Paul WS Anderson is letting the beasts out for Monster Hunter – and he really wants you to see them

FILMMAKERS HAVE BEEN DOING THEIR BEST TO TURN successful videogames into movies for the best part of three decades. There have been rather more failures than triumphs along the way, but Paul WS Anderson has had more success in the arena than most. Now the Mortal Kombat and Resident Evil director is taking on hit Japanese action saga Monster Hunter.

“I always find it funny when people go, ‘Well, videogames, why are they so hard?’” Anderson tells Red Alert. “I think any kind of adaptation is hard. And to be honest, if you went through and did a similar analysis on movies that are adapted from books, I think you’d probably find that there’s lots of failures there as well, but no one ever talks about that. I think it’s a rocky path whatever kind of adaptation you do.

“With the adaptations of videogames that I’ve done, first and foremost, I’m a fanboy,” he continues. “For 11 years now I’ve kind of been involved with the world of Monster Hunter. I’ve talked to the game creators as much as possible. Everything was run by the creators, and we had a really excellent process, they really had a lot of input. Sometimes they were highly critical, but I thought that was great, because I’d rather have the criticism from them and get it right, than have the criticisms from the fans.”