A Streets of Rage live-action movie adaptation has been announced by Lionsgate from Derek Kolstad, the writer of John Wick. Lionsgate is also working on a Borderlands movie adaptation from director Eli Roth, so this isn’t its only video game movie currently in development. Only a few details were offered about this Streets of Rage movie, though.
“When Dimitri first mentioned the idea of cracking a Streets Of Rage movie, I was so immediately freaking in,” said Kolstad. “And to play with Sega? The 10-year-old me is still grinning.” The Streets of Rage franchise is a classic beat ’em up arcade action series from Sega, with its last entry, Streets of Rage 4, releasing in April 2020 to critical success.
Kolstad will serve as both the writer and producer on the Streets of Rage movie, though no director has been named nor a list of potential actors. Given the simple yet effective beat ’em up formula of the video games, though, it might give the filmmakers plenty of freedom to make some creative action while hopefully keeping the story straightforward and true to the games.
It also seems like the talents involved in the John Wick movie series are starting to dip their feet into live-action video game movies. Chad Stahelski, the director of the first three John Wick movies, is currently working with PlayStation Productions to bring Sucker Punch’s Ghost of Tsushima to the big screen.
Hollywood’s track record for video game movies hasn’t been great, to say the least. While the Sonic the Hedgehog movies and Pokemon: Detective Pikachu were moderate successes, others like 2021’s Mortal Kombat, Werewolves Within and 2018’s Tomb Raider fell just short of being anything exceptional. Hopefully this Streets of Rage movie doesn’t fall victim to the Hollywood “curse” that still plagues most live-action video game movies today.
Source: Variety
