page_title: Monster Hunt
section_title: Development
hierarchical_section_title: Monster Hunt / Production / Development
caption_attribution_description: Raman Hui
context_page_description: Monster Hunt is a 2015 Chinese-Hong Kong 3D fantasy action comedy adventure film directed by Raman Hui, and starring Bai Baihe and Jing Boran. The film was released in China on 16 July 2015 in 3D and IMAX 3D, and in countries including Malaysia, Singapore and Korea. Upon release, it became a huge commercial success, breaking numerous box office records, including as the highest-grossing film in China, before The Mermaid took the crown in 2016. It opened in North America on January 22, 2016 in 2D and 3D by FilmRise. A sequel, titled Monster Hunt 2, released in China in 2018.
context_section_description: Hui had long wanted to produce a movie in China. In an interview with the South China Morning Post he said that while overseeing sequences for the Gingerbread Man character in Shrek, he daydreamed about animating a character from a Hong Kong bakery, a Pineapple Bun Man. The idea for the film began in 2005 when Hui—who was living in Hollywood at that time—approached producer Bill Kong on the possibility of making an animated movie in China. But Kong who had no experience with animated film turned the proposal down. The two, who had known each other for 20 years, met as Kong used to distribute movies for DreamWorks Animation in China. But about three years later in 2008, Kong, while visiting Hollywood, invited Hui out for drinks on Sunset Boulevard and asked him if he could make a live-action film with computer graphics for him. Hui, who hadn't done any live-action movies simply said, "Sure, I'll give it a try." Kong introduced Hui to Hong Kong writer Alan Yuen to see what they could come up with. They started looking for comic books or other intellectual property to adapt, but to no avail. Alan finished the script alone by the summer of 2009 taking vague inspiration from monsters mentioned in classical Chinese literature, but with an original story.
  The three took inspiration from an old Chinese book "Classic of Mountains and Seas" (Shan Hai Jing). "It's a weird book from old China, a bit like Nat Geo [National Geographic] with descriptions of monsters living in the mountains. I kind of based the monsters on the descriptions in that book." Hui said. Although Hui admits that there wasn't any particular film he drew inspiration from for the film, he stated that Monster Hunt is partly influenced by various DreamWorks animated movies, Hollywood movies such as Men in Black, Jurassic Park, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, The Lord of the Rings film series and Indiana Jones franchise, Hong Kong films like CJ7 and Drunken Master II, works of Steven Spielberg and James Cameron and visual references at once recalling ancient Chinese landscape painting, a 1970s breakfast cereal called Freakies, and the Oddball Art of Mark Ryden. Kong took the first draft of the script to many friends in the film industry and all of the feedback was that it had potential but it would be too tough to make since the film would need visual effects because of its depiction of monsters. Finally, Hui and Yuen went to a Beijing-based visual effects house, Base FX, and made a four-minute test film in 2012. That gave the team confidence to move ahead.
  Before Hui went to China, DreamWorks Animation sent him to India for 2 years. Upon arriving in China in early 2013, he began assembling his crew, even as he continued to do consulting work for DreamWorks Animation. On the experience of working in a live-action film Hui said, "It was all new to me. I still recall I was so excited to see a costume being made. Before that, all the Shrek costumes were inside a computer. You can't touch it. For this movie, you could touch the fabric. It was like a toy shop, so exciting." Hui and his team decided to make the monsters in the film look more friendly, humanlike and anthropomorphic—in contrary to typical monsters being vicious and scary—because they wanted them to carry emotions and get attached with the audience and the audience to liken the monsters.
caption: Raman Hui directed film which is his first live action directorial debut
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