The SEGA we fell in love with is back, and all its key sagas are back with it: just recently we celebrated the launch of Sonic Frontiers or the Mega Drive Mini 2, and now we have to prepare our bodies for the new Streets of Rage.
Now, however, not as a video game, this time as a movie: Lionsgate confirmed to Deadline that they have acquired the rights and have begun to put names of its own on the table.
We first discussed the project to take SEGA’s acclaimed beat ’em up from consoles to theaters last April, when it was confirmed that Derek Kolstad, creator of the John Wick franchise, is behind the initiative. Now the production of Streets of Rage is entering a new phase in which SEGA itself is involved.
Moreover, one key piece of this production is that working side-by-side with Kolstad is SEGA’s Toru Nakahara, who also serves as producer and whose name appears on both the Sonic movies and Netflix’s impending Sonic Prime series.
Kolstad and Nakahara aren’t the only ones nostalgic for the golden days of the Mega Drive who will participate in this adaptation: Dmitri M. Johnson, Timothy I. Stevenson and Dan Jevons of dj2 Entertainment will also take part and, as the former told Deadline, taking Streets of Rage to the big screen is a true fan’s dream come true:
I’ve been wanting to make a Streets of Rage movie since I was 12 years old. This has become a “dream project” along with a “dream team”.
So what can we expect from a Streets of Rage movie? Erin Westerman, president of production at Lionsgate, says that the video game saga offers “a rich world and narrative,” but we’re not going to deny it: we want to see epic fisticuffs in street scenes that look great on the big screen. If the plot is good, that will be a plus, and if, besides, Roo the kangaroo appears, we are satisfied.
The big SEGA project on the small and big screen
SEGA’s most beloved classic characters are finding a very interesting way to make a comeback. At times in the hands of third parties, like Streets of Rage 4 or Alex Kidd, at others through their own projects like the aforementioned Sonic Frontiers, as well as through new ways to bring back their classics on cell phones, compilation games and mini-consoles.
In this regard, cinema and television have become a very special gear in the company’s plans.
Before the year closes we will see the Sonic Prime series on Netflix, yet SEGA does not put all its eggs in the same basket: the Knuckles series is expected to arrive on Paramount+ next year.
We’ll see the third Sonic movie not long after that, And this is just the beginning: Comix Zone and Space Channel 5 will also have movies. For lack of sequels, SEGA classics are invading the big screen.
Anyway, the Streets of Rage project moving forward is already a very good sign. Speculation is ripe for a cast capable of delivering the action scenes and not too shy about eating hot food off the floor.
A Marvel-style multiverse? That the licenses have been divided among several studios complicates it, but we must not forget that the Marvel Studios Avengers initiative started precisely with Paramount (and that’s why you can’t see it on Disney+).
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