What a time it is to be a member of the fighting game community! In particular, Street Fighter fans are having a moment. The Street Fighter 6 beta is running right now ahead of the game’s full release in June, and earlier this month we learned the grandaddy of all fighting games would be getting a new live-action movie by Legendary and Capcom. And now today comes word on who will be directing, and it’s one of the hottest duos in all of Hollywood.
THR reports that Danny Philippou and Michael Philippou, aka The Philippou Brothers, will direct Legendary’s new Street Fighter movie. The Philippous are hot right now thanks to their Sundance horror flick Talk to Me, which A24 will release this summer. They are also Youtube personalities who have been teasing big meetings with Hollywood power players.
The Street Fighter franchise is the big daddy of all fighting games. It began in 1987 but really took off in 1991 with Street Fighter II, setting the standard for one-on-one that many would try and emulate. There would be no Mortal Kombat, no Tekken, or countless others without Street Fighter. Personally, the high water mark for it was Street Fighter Alpha, or the team-based spinoff Marvel vs. Capcom 2, but I’m biased because I was good at those.
Characters such as Ryu, Ken, and Chun-Li are iconic in the video game realm, and we’ve seen what can be done with such crucial figures on the big screen lately. Sonic the Hedgehog and The Super Mario Bros Movie have shown that video game characters can be box office gold when the right talent is attached.
Crucially, it’s going to depend a lot on who writes the screenplay, but also who is cast to play the “World Warriors” of Street Fighter. Go wrong with either and things could go south quickly. Trust me, fighting game die-hards like me will be commenting on every step of this process.
