Early work Anderson began his professional career as a writer on the British crime drama comedy series
El C.I.D., which ran for three series from 1990 to 1992. He met producer
Jeremy Bolt and they co-founded
Impact Pictures in 1992, looking to raise money for Anderson's feature film debut as a director, from an action crime drama script of his own called
Shopping. After much trouble securing funding, Anderson credits
Shopping for inspiring
Channel Four Films, who had financed it, to also finance
Danny Boyle's more successful
Shallow Grave and
Trainspotting, which he believes made critics in turn reassess his film in a more positive light in later years as one of the first in a new wave of British films concerning its youth.
Shopping is Anderson's only British film,
Mortal Kombat and commercial success Anderson directed the
fantasy martial arts video game adaptation Mortal Kombat in 1995. Using a script written by Kevin Droney, the film was based on the first entry in the video game franchise by
Midway Games,
Mortal Kombat, although elements and characters were borrowed from the original game's sequel,
Mortal Kombat II. The film featured an
ensemble cast, including
Robin Shou as
Liu Kang and
Christopher Lambert as
Raiden. Anderson became interested in the project because he often played the game at
arcades. The production company decided to hire him based on the accomplished visual flair of
Shopping, which was filmed on a very low budget. Anderson, who at the time knew nothing about
visual effects or
fight scenes, had to study every book on visual effects that he could find and learned about filming the fight scenes while they were being shot, often consulting those who were experienced in fight choreography on set, such as Shou. The film had extensive reshoots in order to add additional fights based on feedback from
test screenings, which were attended by fans of the video game franchise. The production company decided to release
Mortal Kombat in August 1995, in the hope that the film would become a summer blockbuster.
Mortal Kombat was better received by critics, who gave it a mixed to negative reception. Critics praised the atmosphere, visuals, and fighting sequences but criticized the plot, dialogue, and acting. It fared better with audiences and fans of the video games and scored a high A− on a
CinemaScore poll. As a result, it spent three weeks as the highest-grossing film at the US box office and earned over $122 million worldwide, produced on a budget of $18 million. It proved a major success for Anderson and has been recognised as one of the first financially successful film adaptations of a video game. Anderson and most cast members, including Lambert, declined to return for the sequel,
Mortal Kombat Annihilation, which, when released, was critically panned and underperformed at the box office.
Event Horizon, Soldier, and The Sight The success of
Mortal Kombat gave Anderson free rein to choose his next project, the
science fiction action film
Soldier, written by
Blade Runner screenwriter
David Peoples. Peoples' script—and eventually the film itself—contains references to his work on
Blade Runner and can be considered to be taking place in the same universe, as a
sidequel or
standalone sequel of sorts.
Kurt Russell became attached to star but decided to take some time off to build up his body, as required by the role, which delayed the production. In the meantime, Anderson directed the 1997 science fiction horror film
Event Horizon, written by
Philip Eisner and starring
Laurence Fishburne and
Sam Neill. Despite praise for its visuals and production design, it was not well received by critics or audiences (D+ on a Cinemascore poll), In the years since its release, it has been reassessed as a cult classic that influenced many horror and sci-fi films and video games, and often appears on lists of the best horror films of all time.
Soldier was eventually completed and released in 1998 but was a critical and commercial disaster, making less than $15 million in the US, on a budget of $60 million, and releasing
straight-to-video in several other markets. Anderson has expressed his regret that the planned location shoots had to be changed to studio soundstages due to the
El Niño hurricane, which ended up compromising the film's look. He also verbalized his disappointment with
Warner Bros., whom he believes tried to market the film to the same male teen audience as
Mortal Kombat, rather than to grown-up audiences, including women. After his last two films' poor performances, Anderson was forced to put his planned
remake of the
cult film Death Race 2000 on hold, and he set about writing and directing the 2000
supernatural mystery drama
TV film The Sight, starring
Andrew McCarthy. It was meant as a
pilot for a potential series, but despite achieving high ratings, it was not picked up. Anderson made his earlier films as "Paul Anderson", the name he registered with the
Directors Guild of America, but with
The Sight, he began crediting himself as "Paul W. S. Anderson", as filmmaker
Paul Thomas Anderson had registered himself with the
Writers Guild of America as "Paul Anderson", making it impossible for either of them to both write and direct films as "Paul Anderson".
Resident Evil, Alien vs. Predator, and Death Race Anderson returned to cinema screens in 2002 with
Resident Evil, a science fiction action horror film loosely based on the
Capcom video game series
of the same name. Anderson came up with the idea of adapting the games after playing the first couple of them for days in his apartment. Because
Constantin Film, who had acquired the rights to the series, were not willing to spend more money than they already had on failed attempts (including a script by
George A. Romero), Anderson convinced them to write the script, titled
The Undead,
on spec. If they liked it, he would sell it to them as a
Resident Evil film; if not, he would take it elsewhere and try to make it unrelated to the games. He saw the film as being a
prequel of sorts to the first game in the series and, as such, did not include any of the games' characters, a fact criticized by fans. Instead, it stars
Milla Jovovich as an original character,
Alice. It also performed strongly on home media. Critically,
Resident Evil was not received well, although, similarly to
Mortal Kombat, some reviews characterized it as one of the better attempts at adapting a video game. It received the "fair" rating of B by audiences on a Cinemascore poll. Anderson did not direct, but he wrote, produced, and was otherwise heavily involved with the making of two sequels,
Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004) and
Resident Evil: Extinction (2007), which completed the first of the eventual two trilogies of
Resident Evil films. In the two sequels, Anderson began to introduce characters from the games, albeit in supporting roles compared to Alice. but were even bigger commercial successes. Anderson's next project was
Alien vs. Predator, based on the
crossover concept
of the same name of the
Alien and
Predator franchises, popularized by a series of
Dark Horse comics and hinted at in
Predator 2. A film version had been stuck in
development hell for several years, despite the franchise's crossing into every other form of media, from books to comics to video games. Anderson directed the film from a script of his own, and it was released in 2004. It received negative reviews and a B on a Cinemascore poll by audiences. A sequel was made,
Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, in which Anderson was not involved, and which failed to match Anderson's film's commercial or even critical performance, a fact that Anderson has used to defend his film. and scored a solid B+ on a Cinemascore poll. Anderson wrote and produced two straight-to-video prequels,
Death Race 2 (2011) and
Death Race 3: Inferno (2013), set before the events of the 2008 film. He later wrote and executive-produced
Death Race: Beyond Anarchy (2018), a sequel to the first film. The
Resident Evil productions were criticized for unsafe filming and using shell companies to avoid liability. During the filming of
Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (2016), crew member Ricardo Cornelius died when he was caught beneath a
Humvee sliding off of a rotating platform. Stunt-woman Olivia Jackson lost most of an arm and was partially paralyzed when she collided with a camera crane during the filming of a motorcycle stunt in rain and freezing conditions. It was determined that she was wearing inadequate safety equipment and that the stunt's timing had been changed without her knowledge. During the filming of
Resident Evil: Retribution (2012), twelve extras were hospitalized with leg, neck, and back wounds after falling from a collapsing high-wheeled platform. Anderson filmed in native 3D, using the Sony F35 camera, mounted on the
Fusion Camera System, which was previously used in
Avatar. Despite negative reviews by critics and a lukewarm B in a Cinemascore poll by audiences, The film failed to impress critics who reviewed it negatively and scored a B on a
Cinemascore poll. Anderson wrote and directed the fifth installment in the
Resident Evil film franchise,
Resident Evil: Retribution, in 2012. Anderson brought back several actors from the original trilogy of films to play alternate versions of their characters. The film received generally negative reviews and a C+ on a Cinemascore poll, the series' lowest. In 2014, his 3D
historical disaster romance film named
Pompeii was released. Inspired by the
eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 which destroyed
Pompeii, a city of the
Roman Empire, the film was written by Janet Scott Batchler, Lee Batchler, and Michael Robert Johnson; it stars
Kit Harington,
Emily Browning,
Carrie-Anne Moss,
Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje,
Jessica Lucas, with
Jared Harris, and
Kiefer Sutherland. The movie received generally mixed to negative reviews from critics and was rated a B in a Cinemascore poll. In late 2016 in
Japan, and early 2017 in the rest of the world, Anderson's
Resident Evil: The Final Chapter was released, which according to both him and Jovovich is the last
Resident Evil film they will be involved with. Anderson designed the film "to come full circle", provide answers to some of the series' mysteries, and provide closure for the character of Alice. He decided to abandon the previous two films' stylistic approach of using slow motion in favor of a more fast and gritty feeling, and he also decided to convert the film in 3D in post, instead of filming with 3D cameras. The film received average to negative reviews, slightly better than the previous installments, and more along the lines of the original film. It was rated B by audiences on a Cinemascore poll, which is the highest rating in the series, and shared with the first and second films. in large part due to a record $94.3 million opening in
China, making it Anderson's highest-grossing film.
Monster Hunter and In the Lost Lands In December 2020, Anderson directed
Monster Hunter, based on Capcom's
Monster Hunter video-game franchise. It was released in December 2020 after delays relating to the
COVID-19 pandemic, leading to a disappointing gross of $43 million against a $60 million budget; and received mixed reviews. In February 2025, he directed
In the Lost Lands, based on
George R. R. Martin's short story
of the same name.
Future Anderson is set to write and direct an upcoming film adaptation of
The House of the Dead video game, specifically its third canonical installment. The film is set to begin production mid-to-late-2025. In March 2025, Anderson stated that the screenplay was almost done and that it would shoot in the fourth quarter of the year. ==Canceled projects==