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