11 December 2008
Josh

King Of Fighters Movie goes sci-fi

The latest fighting game to be turned into a movie is The King of Fighters which is set for release sometime in 2010.

Other upcoming game movies based on fighting games include Tekken and the Street Fighter-based movie Street Fighter: The legend of Chun-Li (starring Kristen Kruek aka Lana Lane from Smallville as Chun-Li) and the already released Dead or Alive film.

The King of Fighters flick will see the franchise getting a science fiction angle (something not found in the games, at least to my knowledge) as revealed in this quote from the MovieSet:

It also looks like the King of Fighters movie will introduce a new science fiction spin into the setting established in the games’ universe by following the surviving members of three legendary fighting clans who are continually whisked away to other dimensions by an evil power. As the fighters enter each new world they battle that universe’s native defenders, while the force that brought them seeks to find a way to invade and infect our world. Hmm, doesn’t seem very faithful to the games to me, eh.

Naturally the game is based on the long-running “The King of Fighters” franchise of fighting games by SNK Playmore. A series which is on it’s 12th core entry with The King of Fighters XII and has spawned a whopping 13 spin-off games. To put that into perspective, the Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter franchises are still in single digits (Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe is the 8th MK game while Street Fighter is on it’s fourth CORE entry with Street Fighter IV, even though there’s been tons of spin-offs and re-releases).

The King of Fighters movie began filming in Vancouver, Canada on November 27th. It’s being directed by Gordon Chan, a dynamic Hong-Kong-born director who is known for films like Fist of legend, Beast Cop and Jackie Chan’s 2003 flick The Medallion. The screenplay is by newcomer Rita Augustine.

As far as actors are concerned, The King of Fighters will star Maggie Q (Live Free and Die Hard), Sean Faris (Never Back Down), Will Yun Lee (Elektra), Francoise Yip (Aliens vs. Predator – Requiem), Monique Ganderton (Supernatural) and Ray Park, best known for his portrayal as Darth Maul in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.

Producing the movie will be Joseph Chou (Appleseed: Ex Machina), Tim Kwok (Wicked City) and Bobby Sheng. The picture is being jointly financed by Japanese production and rights management group Micott & Basara and Australian-U.S. sales agent Arclight/Easternlight.

Via Kotaku

11 December 2008 16:50
Bruce Darren Acosta

KING OF FIGHTERS MOVIE.

The story about the dimensions for this King Of Fighters movie is very lame it should be more based on the first storyline of the game I’m not very happy about the upcoming Tekken movie with the storyline set in the future,but I don’t want to complain about this crap but I think Darkstalkers would go to the big screen and it will have a storyline to follow the first game,the story is about the supernatural warriors fighting in a fighting tournament and I think that Mortal kombat film producer Larry Kasanoff should get the rights to Darkstalkers and Capcom should give Kasanoff a deal to work on the franchise.
The King Of Fighters would be allright.
Thank You.
BRUCE ACOSTA
AUSTRALIA.

14 January 2009 07:48
ricky

We have to wait and see how this movie turns out, so far they got kyo and iori the faces of the game but they arent the only faces people like. theres a lot of cool characters like k’ , terry, leona and many more those 3 are just a few. if other favorites dont come out in this movie it would kinda suck but we have to wait and see maybe they are still casting more actors to play the characters. that whole deal about dimensions and clans makes kinda sense cause the games characters do have family history like kyo and iori for example. i just hope they dont make it like mortal kombat the movie cause in reality and to conclude this comment, King of Fighters is about kicking ass and looking cool while doing it. All the characters in king of fighters are cool they look very cool and they fight in groups too, 3 on 3. ok one last thing street fighter is problably the most famous fighting game ever. mortal kombat is the most violent fighting game ever. King of Fighters is in 3d place but the characters are bad ass they’re very cool. please mr. director make them bad ass on the silver screen too.

15 April 2009 07:44
Duranthis

I’m severely disappointed with the “sci-fi” twist which completely feels off kilter from the basic supernatural feel of the basic Orochi saga. Where do they get these bizarre ideas? If they were smart they would have just focused on the basic storyline and show other characters on the side while focusing on the relationships between the “3 clans” and why they exist. Using Rugal as the host to start the KoF tournament with a secret agenda to use and obtain “Orochi” powers and trying to show that his attempt only opens up a gateway to an even worse enemy would have made sense, as well as leave an opening for a Nests saga. I can make better screenplays based on this game than the crazy script monkeys that toss out these warped movies.

As with DoA, Street Fighter movies (and I use that term loosely) I will be saving my mind and my eyes from the pain and suffering of another film like this.