STREET FIGHTER Reboot Reportedly Finds New Director Following TALK TO ME Filmmakers' Departure

The long-gestating Street Fighter reboot from Legendary and Capcom has reportedly enlisted a new director to take over from Talk To Me filmmakers Danny and Michael Philippou...

By MarkCassidy - Sep 27, 2024 10:09 AM EST

Filed Under: Street Fighter

Legendary and Capcom's planned Street Fighter reboot recently hit a major setback when Danny and Michael Philippou - who helmed Aussie horror hit Talk To Me - stepped away from the project, but a new director may have been found.

According to insider Daniel Richtman, Kitao Sakurai (Bad Trip) has now signed on to helm the film.

Reports indicate that "scheduling is partly to blame" for the Philippou brothers' decision, as the studio was hoping to begin shooting the movie fairly soon, and the filmmakers had shifted their focus to what will now be their next project, Bring Her Back, which is currently shooting in Australia.

It's a shame that the Philippou brothers will no longer take the helm, as they sounded very enthusiastic about the film during a recent interview.

"I think it's awesome that we have such a connection with the game and to the characters, and there's not like a pre-established big film franchise where we have to fall in line [with] an overall plot," said Danny. "I think that we'd have the freedom to create what that overall arc 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."

Michael added, "And I think it's like, diving into the lore of Street Fighter, all the characters, where they come from has been so exciting. You just get endless ideas, so putting them to the screen, yeah, I think we can make something special."

Some early logo artwork for the movie was recently unveiled, which you can check out at the link below.

First Street Fighter Movie Promo Poster Unveiled at Licensing Expo [Exclusive]
https://t.co/3AuxjCYZWV
— Collider (@Collider) May 21, 2024

The Street Fighter video game series remains one of the most popular fighting games franchises of all time, but hasn't fared very well with live-action adaptation up until now. The 1994 movie starring Jean-Claude Van Damme and Kylie Minogue has amassed a cult following over the years, but is still widely regarded as a misfire, and the less said about 2009's Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li the better!

We know next to nothing about this latest take on the property, so it's impossible to say whether it will break the trend. The majority of fans would seem to prefer a Ryu-focused story, but there is a lot of Street Fighter lore to mine from at this stage.

STREET FIGHTER Reboot Searches For New Director As TALK TO ME Filmmakers Depart Video Game Adaptation

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49 Comments

1 2

ItsNotForMeWahh - 9/27/2024, 10:08 AM

Make it as campy as the first!

grif - 9/27/2024, 10:32 AM

@ItsNotForMeWahh - its the only one that made money

ItsNotForMeWahh - 9/27/2024, 10:34 AM

@grif -

The1st - 9/27/2024, 11:23 AM

@ItsNotForMeWahh - It needs to come out...on Tuesday.

RolandD - 9/27/2024, 11:40 AM

@ItsNotForMeWahh - Camp? I guess that explains the super cheesy thumbnail.

phoenixvici - 9/27/2024, 11:58 AM

@RolandD -

supermanrex - 9/27/2024, 10:16 AM

they need to take a blue print from the street fighter the animated movie on how to mix fighting game and story together. Really i think Tekken is probably the best fighting game that can translate to screen without being a complete cheese fest of shoe horning in game easter eggs or one liners into the movie. Raul Julia's Game Over was pinnacle and fit the movie. Now they just throw shit in like that all the time and it doesn't work for these adaptations anymore.

DarthAlgar - 9/27/2024, 10:23 AM

@supermanrex - They tried that with Tekken in 2010.

It didn't work out so well.

HashTagSwagg - 9/27/2024, 10:36 AM

@DarthAlgar - Nah, they nailed Kazuya in that movie

HulkisHoly - 9/27/2024, 1:39 PM

@DarthAlgar -

That movie barely followed the games and that was the big part of the problem; along with acting.

DarthAlgar - 9/27/2024, 1:50 PM

@HulkisHoly - Ahh, rapist Kazuya.

A goatee, no scar, and he uses twin hatchets.

Ian Anthony Dale even looked like Kazuya a little bit.

What a waste. 😑

DarthAlgar - 9/27/2024, 1:51 PM

@HulkisHoly - That's 99% of fighting game movies.

You have some exceptions like Mortal Kombat.

HashTagSwagg - 9/27/2024, 2:30 PM

@DarthAlgar - How dare you

HulkisHoly - 9/27/2024, 3:41 PM

@DarthAlgar -

One of the funniest to me is DOA

supermanrex - 9/27/2024, 5:49 PM

@DarthAlgar - tekken needs a good writer. there is so much material to work with. writer must have been focused on video game antics and not story.

WarMonkey - 9/28/2024, 7:44 AM

@HulkisHoly - I'm actually a big fan of that movie. I won't say it's a good movie though, like at all. I enjoy it though lol

HulkisHoly - 9/28/2024, 8:54 AM

@WarMonkey -

I know why you enjoy it… 👀😜

HashTagSwagg - 9/27/2024, 10:34 AM

He played one of these guys from Dogma

mountainman - 9/27/2024, 10:58 AM

I’d say the first movie should just be a straight up fighting tournament. Allow for flashbacks or character development to give us character backstories. Keep it simple. Honor the games without overly relying on easter eggs and cameos. Take it serious but add a little bit of camp. Channel the great martial arts movies of the 80s and 90s. Play up the nostalgia but modernize it where appropriate.

If they start adding in too much of the game series’ 30+ year convoluted backstory, it could really over complicate things.

Pull from Super Street Fighter II and you have a very diverse cast. The only potential deficiency is only 2 women out of the 12 characters. But maybe add in some popular more modern female characters. Heck even pull some of the girls from the newest game. Manon, Juri, Kimberly, and even T Hawk’s daughter Lily are all interesting characters.

Vigor - 9/27/2024, 11:27 AM

@mountainman - spot on

The1st - 9/27/2024, 11:27 AM

@mountainman - I think the camp can easily be handled by having the start the way they do in the games. An occasional "i'm impressed" here and a callback or 2 to the original there. They could make it much more serious in tone though and get away with it though. It's not MK, so they don't have to worry about the gore aspect. My concern is this will get the PG-13 treatment even though I think Hollywood has seen the R-rated adaptations done right now can work.

mountainman - 9/27/2024, 11:38 AM

@The1st - Street Fighter shouldn’t be rated R. Sure many of the characters can have very sexualized depictions with some of their costumes, but it’s an all ages franchise. It’s never been too violent, sexualized or adult in its themes. PG-13 seems like an ideal rating. Some of those old martial arts movies were rated R, but it isn’t needed for this.

The1st - 9/27/2024, 11:44 AM

@mountainman - Perhaps you're right. I just want them to make the fights good without that aspect going full camp. I think this, like so many franchises, can be done properly with the respect it deserves thanks to current tech. Makes me miss the Machinima days somewhat.

mountainman - 9/27/2024, 12:04 PM

@The1st - One advantage Street Fighter has over Mortal Kombat is it is more grounded. Yeah there are still some moves that are fantastical and a few characters that aren’t realistic like Blanka, but they can ground it a lot more.

I’d love to see them lean into the hand to hand combat of it. Get a great fight choreographer. Lean into the fact that many of the fighters have vastly different styles that originate from different places on Earth. There really doesn’t need to be too much gore or death for it to still be brutal.

HulkisHoly - 9/27/2024, 1:40 PM

@mountainman -

This

The1st - 9/27/2024, 3:09 PM

@mountainman - I can see that. Start around II like you suggested, and then lean a little more into the fantastical by the 2nd or 3rd film. Alpha, 3rd Strike and maybe IV/V is as far as they should go though. The MvC stuff won't work things like Chun-Li or Honda's speed moves should be in spurts only to start if at all, unless they give it the Snyder treatment.

mountainman - 9/28/2024, 10:21 AM

@The1st - The story has always been crazy, even just for the mainline SF series. They can adapt small portions of the lore and fill multiple movies. I just hope they don’t try doing too much.

TheVisionary25 - 9/27/2024, 11:04 AM

If true then congrats to Mr Sakurai , wish him the best!!.

I’m not familiar with his work since I haven’t seen Twisted Metal & such (though I have had good things about the former).

Anyway , hopefully this turns out well!!.

valmic - 9/27/2024, 12:15 PM

Its a shame because these bros are nuts and were perfect for this project. Ive been watching them for years.

?si=znFQxg4q7cuJF8lg

The1st - 9/27/2024, 3:13 PM

@valmic - Machinima bro.

?si=sE6G6myIsIVSBB_J

DocSpock - 9/27/2024, 12:33 PM

I can’t understand why anyone would be interested in this.

MahN166A - 9/27/2024, 2:02 PM

@DocSpock -

That's like asking, "why would anyone would be interested in a comic book movie?"

DocSpock - 9/27/2024, 4:20 PM

@MahN166A -

No it isn't. Comics have been an art form for 100 years. This is from a cheesy old video game.

MahN166A - 9/27/2024, 8:40 PM

@DocSpock -

And video games are an art form as well. Not as old as comics per se, but now you’re starting to sound like the conservative parents and senate committee who diminished EC horror comics and had that art thrown into fire pits because they don’t align with your IDEA of “art” or “content worthy of attention”

What you define as “cheesy” is cherished by many. One of the foundations of Fighting Games in gaming. And that is indisputable since it is a pop culture IP.
It’d be like you telling me what you think is good content to enjoy, and I tell you that it’s garbage.
That’s obviously my opinion whether you like it or not.
But to flat out ask, “why would anyone be interested in this?” would be the same reason why anyone would wanna see the stuff that you might like.

DocSpock - 9/27/2024, 9:58 PM

@MahN166A -

ZZZZZZ.... TLDR....

MahN166A - 9/27/2024, 10:02 PM

@DocSpock -

TLDR:

You’re a pretentious [frick].

DocSpock - 9/27/2024, 10:57 PM

@MahN166A -

You are nothing.

dracula - 9/27/2024, 12:41 PM

Hopefully its better than the last 2

SpiderBloke2099 - 9/27/2024, 1:54 PM

Just bring back Ming-Na as Chun-Li's mom or something and have them doing the special movies with the fireballs and I'm down with it.

MahN166A - 9/27/2024, 2:03 PM

Wow. Dropping the ball already and I have seen what this dude has directed.
Just go with Joey Ansah, you created the YouTube series, "Street Fighter: Assassin's Fist".

1 2

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STREET FIGHTER Reboot Reportedly Finds New Director Following TALK TO ME Filmmakers' Departure

The long-gestating Street Fighter reboot from Legendary and Capcom has reportedly enlisted a new director to take over from Talk To Me filmmakers Danny and Michael Philippou...

STREET FIGHTER Reboot Searches For New Director As TALK TO ME Filmmakers Depart Video Game Adaptation

STREET FIGHTER: First Poster Art For TALK TO ME Directors' Live-Action Reboot Unveiled