Street Fighter Gets New Director

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Following several years of production, the long-awaited movie adaptation of the renowned and impactful video game, Street Fighter, has secured a new director. Kitao Sakurai (known for The Eric Andre Show and The Passage) has been appointed to lead the film, as reported by Deadline. Previously, the Philippou Brothers (directors of Talk to Me) had departed from their roles in June 2024, leaving a gap despite Sony setting a release date of March 20, 2026. With Sakurai now on board, Street Fighter can start assembling its cast, given that the film is scheduled for release in approximately 13 months.

2023 saw me, a movie enthusiast, thrilled by the news that Legendary had secured the rights for the big-screen adaptation of Street Fighter, an iconic gaming series with over 55 million units sold worldwide. The excitement grew when dynamic Australian directors Danny and Michael Philippou were in discussions to helm the project, a move that was nothing short of inspiring. In fact, these brothers from another mother had previously directed the hilarious promotional video titled “Real Life Street Fighter” for the Street Fighter: Resurrection web series on Machinima.

However, fate had other plans as scheduling conflicts led the Philippou brothers to depart the project within a year, with their next immediate film being Bring Her Back. This sudden departure left Legendary and Capcom in a bit of a pickle, as they seemed eager to move forward without delay.

The “Street Fighter” video game franchise kicked off in 1987 as a well-known fighting game. Its sequel in 1991 significantly stepped up the game, allowing players to pick various characters and became extremely popular. If it weren’t for “Street Fighter,” we might not have “Mortal Kombat.” The latest installment, “Street Fighter 6,” was released in 2023, coinciding with the announcement of a new film by Legendary.

There Have Been Other Film Adaptations of ‘Street Fighter’

In recent years, I’ve noticed just two web series, such as “Street Fighter: Assassin’s Fist” (2014) and “Resurrections” (2016), but the number of film adaptations from video games can be counted on one hand. Going back to 1994, the first film adaptation was penned and directed by Steven E. de Souza, who also wrote the iconic Die Hard. This movie featured Jean-Claude Van Damme as Colonel Guile, Raul Julia as Bison, Kylie Minogue as Cammy, and Ming-Na Wen as Chun-Li. It premiered around Christmas and managed to earn $99 million on a budget of $35 million; while not a flop, it didn’t quite justify a sequel. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a dismal 11% critical rating and a slightly better 20% audience score.

2009 saw the release of “Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li,” a movie that left audiences and critics less than impressed, to put it mildly. Starring Kristin Kreuk as Chun-Li, Neal McDonough as Bison, and Michael Clarke Duncan as Balrog, the film bombed at the box office, earning just $12.7 million globally, and received harsh criticism from both critics and viewers, with a dismal 3% rating on Rotten Tomatoes among professionals, and only slightly better at 12% among audiences. In terms of video game adaptations, it’s hard to find ones as poorly received or worse than this movie, with “Double Dragon” (also released in 1994) and the first “Super Mario Bros.” film (1993) being strong contenders for that dubious title.

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2025-02-20 00:02