Earlier this year, it was announced that 90's beat em up franchise Streets of Rage is getting a movie adaptation, with Amazon set to finance Sonic the Hedgehog 2 studio dj2 Entertainment. It now seems like the movie rights have changed hands, as the Streets of Rage movie is now being produced by Lionsgate, with John Wick writer Derek Kolstad still on board to both write and produce the picture.
This is according to Variety, who was the first to break the news about the movie's rights changing hands. Unfortunately, we still don't know who will direct the movie, when it will release, or whether it will get a theatrical release or a release on streaming services. Lionsgate does have history with video game adaptations though, and one other big video game adaptation it has in the works at the moment is the the upcoming Borderlands movie, although we're still waiting on a release date for that title.
As far as we know, the Streets of Rage movie doesn't yet have a director in place, meaning more info about a release date or plot will more than likely be years away. Still, series owner Sega will be more than happy to wait if it means replicating the success of its two recent Sonic the Hedgehog movies, which have both defied odds and performed relatively well, critically and commercially.
It actually might be due to the success of those two movies that we're getting a Streets of Rage movie in the first place. The publisher has been a lot more willing to reach into its vaults for older titles to adapt ever since Sonic started doing well, as recently showcased by the recent announcements of movie adaptations for both Space Channel 5 and Comix Zone, two of the last Sega properties you'd expect to receive that kind of treatment. Let's just thank the heavens that we aren't getting a Shaq Fu movie. Yet...