The production of a movie based on Capcom's Monster Hunter is now in full swing. While this may seem like a good thing as the series' popularity is at an all time high, there are several red flags that makes it somewhat worrying. The movie based on a Capcom property is being helmed by Paul W.S. Anderson and stars his wife Milla Jovovich, which was the same exact combination the horrible Resident Evil movie series was birthed from.

The movie takes place in both the real and fantasy worlds, and the first set photos from this month don't look like the games, which is fairly worrying. That being said, some comments from Paul W.S. Anderson in an interview with /Film may give series fans a silver of hope to hold onto, even if the odds are stacked against this Monster Hunter movie's favor.

While the focus of the interview was on Origin, a YouTube Premium series of which Paul W.S. Anderson directs the first two episodes, he did touch on the Monster Hunter movie. When asked about his familiarity of the series as whole, Paul revealed that he's been cognizant of the series for about 10 years, and became a fan before it caught on in the west. He describes the film as a "passion project" so hopefully some actual effort will be put behind it:

"I became aware of the game 10 years ago. I’ve been a long term fan of Monster Hunter before most people in the west even knew what it was. Partly because I spend a lot of time in Japan and I fell in love with the imagery of the game and started talking to Capcom about it nine years ago. It’s definitely a passion project of mine, nine years in the making."

When asked if characters from the game would make an appearance, Paul confirmed that The Handler, The Admiral, Aiden, Aiden’s Handler, and Palicoes would be in the movie, which seems to be drawing mainly from the recent Monster Hunter: World. That being said, there will be some original characters, though he thinks that fine as the Monster Hunter games heavily feature character creation that needs to take center stage as opposed to characters like Jill Valentine or Lara Croft:

"No, the movie has a lot of characters from the video game in it. There’s The Handler and Admiral, Aiden, Aiden’s Handler. We wanted Palico. It’s very much a movie of the video game, but in Monster Hunter you get to create your own character when you go in there. You don’t get to play Lara Craft or Jill Valentine. You get to play your own creation, and there is definitely an element of that in there.

Some of the leading characters will be fresh characters but that’s a reflection of what the video game is. It’s definitely a movie that is firmly and fully entrenched in the world of the video game, as you would expect with me having worked with Capcom for nine years on adapting it and bringing it to the screen."

As for the monster's featured within the movie, most will be drawn from Monster Hunter: World, though some "fabulous monsters" from earlier titles will be featured in the movie as well. Paul W.S. Anderson didn't want to create any new monsters because there was so much great material to draw from and entice people to try out the entire series:

"Listen, I don’t need to create any new monsters. There’s such a vast array of amazing creatures over the years. We’re leaning quite heavily on the favorite creatures from Monster Hunter: World which is the latest game, but we’re also bringing in what I think are some of the fabulous monsters from some of the earlier games and well, and some of the imagery from the earlier games.

So I think for fans of Monster Hunter World, you’ll recognize that world and the characters from that world very much, but also it’ll be a callback to some of the favorite moments and creatures from some of the earlier games, which hopefully will get people excited to check out those earlier games as well because there’s some magnificent imagery and monsters in those earlier games as well that I think a lot of people who have just played Monster Hunter: World may not be aware of."

Though the odds are still stacked against this movie being good, these comments do at least show that Paul W.S. Anderson has some semblance of knowledge and respect for the series, so hopefully he won't ruin like he did with Resident Evil films. I guess we'll only truly know once the film is in theaters, though the Monster Hunter movie is still without a specific release window.

Monster Hunter isn't the only video game movie in production right now either. Capcom is currently working on a film based on Mega Man, a Sonic the Hedgehog movie is being filmed, and Ubisoft is developing a motion picture based on Werewolves Within as well as a TV series adapting Child of Light. If you just want to stick to video games, mainly Monster Hunter, you can pick up Monster Hunter: World or Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate on Amazon.