John Wick franchise creator Derek Kolstad is writing the script for a Streets of Rage movie at Paramount and Sega, according to Deadline. Dj2 Entertainment and Escape Artists are producing the film, with the former having also produced the Sonic the Hedgehog movies. There are apparently no other concrete details about the movie yet, but it is enough to munch on.
Streets of Rage is a sidescrolling beat ’em up action game franchise that began life on Sega Genesis in 1991. It spawned two successful sequels before largely going dormant for decades. However, the 2020 release of Streets of Rage 4 from Dotemu, Lizardcube, and Guardcrush Games revived the franchise in dramatic fashion, with critics hailing it as one of the best games in the genre. If there were ever a time for a Streets of Rage movie, this is it. At the least, it can’t be any worse than the Double Dragon movie.
Of course, Paramount and Sega have certainly gotten the hang of creating great video game movie adaptations lately, with the success of Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, and a third movie and Knuckles spin-off series on the way. Derek Kolstad also knows how to write a terrific action movie, and a Streets of Rage movie needs to be absolutely exploding with ludicrous martial arts. For these reasons, this is a video game movie worth approaching with cautious optimism.
Stay tuned for updates.
