Legendary and Capcom‘s first choice to develop the mega-popular fighting-game franchise Street Fighter into a new movie has just left the project, so they’re on the lookout for Player 2. It’s game over for Danny and Michael Philippou, the duo behind last year’s sleeper scare hit Talk to Me, who have departed the film due to scheduling issues. The Hollywood Reporter has the news that the hunt is now on for new directors.
Capcom recruited the brotherly directorial duo last year to much fanfare, hoping that their third attempt at bringing the venerable fighting game to the big screen would be the charm. Speaking to Collider‘s Perri Nemiroff last year, the YouTubers-turned-filmmakers were enthusiastic about what they could bring to the property, with Danny noting his excitement to “have the freedom to create what that overall art could be if it was gonna be a bunch of films. And also, we’d love the chance to do an action film. We’d love the chance to do big set pieces of a big budget because even on our YouTube stuff, we’re designing stunt rigs that had never been done before. And to do that on a grand scale, man, I feel like we could create something no one’s ever seen before.” However, the knockout blow for the film was scheduling; while Capcom and Legendary wanted to move forward quickly, the Philippou brothers had turned their attention to their upcoming horror film Bring Her Back, which recently landed Sally Hawkins as its lead.
When Has ‘Street Fighter’ Hit the Big Screen Before?
Street Fighter made its big-screen bow in 1994, during a wave of video game adaptations that also included Super Mario Bros. and Mortal Kombat. It starred Jean-Claude Van Damme as Colonel Guile, the leader of a peacekeeping force opposing the rule of tyrannical dictator M. Bison (Raul Julia, in his final role before his death from stomach cancer). The film featured an eclectic cast, including Ming-Na Wen, Kylie Minogue, and Wes Studi; despite a solid action-movie pedigree from writer-director Steven E. de Souza, who penned 48 Hrs., Commando, and Die Hard, the film was a critical flop, although it earned $99 million USD on a $35 million budget. Capcom tried again with 2009’s Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li; it starred Smallville‘s Kristin Kreuk in the title role, and also featured Neal McDonough, Chris Klein, and Michael Clarke Duncan. This time, not only were the critics equally unkind, but audiences weren’t interested, either; the film made 12.8 million on a $50 million budget, putting an end to Capcom‘s filmic ambitions until now.
The first Street Fighter game was released in 1987, but its 1991 sequel, Street Fighter II, is considered to be a massive improvement on its predecessor, and remains one of the top-selling video games of all time. The most recent installment in the series, Street Fighter 6, was released last year.
Capcom and Legendary‘s new Street Fighter film is now looking for a director; no release date has yet been announced.
via Collider