Legendary is ready to unleash a sonic boom, with the studio acquiring the film and TV rights to the classic beat-’em-up game Street Fighter. The studio will work with video game company Capcom on future projects.
Street Fighter is one of the more enduring fighting video game franchises of all time. It began life with the 1987 arcade game Street Fighter, and hit a high-water mark with Street Fighter II, the 1991 game that spawned countless special editions and remakes. In all, the franchise has sold 49 million units worldwide, with a new installment, Street Fighter 6, due out June 2.
It is known for characters such as Ryu, Ken, Chung-Li, Guile and M. Bison, each of whom have various moves (and sounds — such as “hadouken!”) that make them memorable.
Hollywood has made moves on Street Fighter in the past, with Universal releasing an ill-fated 1994 film that starred Jean-Claude Van Damme as Col. Guile and featured a cast including Kylie Minogue, Ming-Na Wen and the late Raul Julia. More than a decade later, 20th Century Fox released Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li (2009), which starred Kristin Kreuk in the title role. Like its predecessor, it was a commercial and critical bomb. An assortment of animated adaptations have also made their way to the screen.
Legendary, which has a film distribution deal with Sony, has Dune: Part Two due out Nov. 3. Its deal for Street Fighter comes as video game adaptations have found success in recent years, with Paramount’s Sonic films, Sony’s Uncharted and HBO’s The Last of Us all cutting through to various degrees. And on Friday, Universal will try its luck with The Super Mario Bros. Movie, the first time in 30 years that gaming giant Nintendo has teamed with a Hollywood studio to put one of its prized properties on the big screen.
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