Summary
Legendary and Capcom are on the hunt for a new director for its planned Street Fighter movie. That’s because the duo of Danny and Michael Philippou, better known as RackaRacka, have bowed out.According to The Hollywood Reporter, scheduling is the reason why the duo will no longer helm the film.
The duo’s exit comes a little over a year afterit was announced that the twins had signed on to direct the adaption. In April 2023, it was reported that the filmmakers were in final negotiations with Legendary. While relatively new to the filmmaking scene, the twins gained fame for their RackaRacka YouTube channel, which featured an eclectic mix of horror and comedy content. They parlayed that fame into their first feature film, Talk to Me, which was distributed by A24 to critical and commercial success.
That success allowedthem to negotiate a “lucrative low- to mid-seven-figure” deal, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Instead, it looks like Legendary will now shift its focus to filling the void. Meanwhile, the Philippou brothers will begin work on a new film that’s set to begin shooting before the end of the month.
Multiple Street Fighter Projects Are In The Works
The proposed Street Fighter movie was just one of several projects that were reportedly in the works. That’s becauseLegendary acquired both the film and TV rights to the iconic fighting game franchise in 2023. A movie was the first announced project,though it was made apparent that multiple adaptations were part of the plans. At the time of the rights announcement, video game adaptations had experienced significant success,with the likes of Sonic and Uncharted gracing the big screenandThe Last of Us shining on television. To that point,The Super Mario Bros. Moviestill hadn’t been released yet.
As it turns out, while the duo had plans to turn Street Fighter from concept into reality, Legendary and Capcom wanted to move sooner rather than later. That’s what led to the scheduling conflict that paved the way for their exit,per The Hollywood Reporter. The new film that the duo will commence work on will also be in collaboration with A24 and is titled Bring Her Back.
Much like its storied video game history,Street Fighteralso has a storied multimedia history. Itwas among the first video games to receive a major adaptation in 1994 with a filmthat starred Jean-Claude Van Damme. Street Fighter subsequently receivedanimated films as well as manga and comic book entries. While its multimedia efforts have had varying success rates, the fact is, Street Fighter has a long, enduring history of expanding beyond the realm of video games. And so, it shouldn’t be too difficult to find a replacement.
