Video game adaptations have always garnered mixed reactions from fans. Some are always excited to see what the showrunners decide to do with the source material they’re working from, others will go out of their way to find every flaw they can find in the show. Most recently on the conveyer belt of movie adaptations is Streets of Rage, a beat ‘em up game (players face off against several opponents in hand-to-hand combat in a last-man-standing war for victory) developed by Sega in which players are given their choice of three vigilantes (formerly cops known as Axel, Blaze, and Adam) who battle their way through the crime syndicate that has taken root in their city and thwarts the plans of Mr. X, the evil mastermind and leader of the syndicate.
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Let’s take a look at what is going into the development of this movie adaptation of Streets of Rage.
Who’s Involved in the Project?
Fans of Streets of Rage were pleased to discover that the creator behind the John Wick films would be the one heading the upcoming movie. Derek Kolstad’s involvement was a sure guarantee that the new adaptation would honour the game’s gameplay and violent nature.
Joining him will be the two production companies that were involved in the development of the Sonic the Hedgehog films: dj2 Entertainment and Escape Artists.
When talking to Deadline about the upcoming adaptation Kolstad said, “When Dmitri first mentioned the idea of cracking a Streets of Rage movie, I was so immediately freaking in. And so play with Sega? The 10-year-old me is still grinning.”
There has been no announcement about the cast or a director yet.
What is the Plot of the Upcoming Adaptation?
Streets of Rage is not a game that is best known for its story or plot and is focused instead on lettings its players just enjoy themselves as they fight their way through wave after wave of enemies until they reach the main boss at the end of the game. There is a very likely chance that this concept will be kept to with the film, though they could take the opportunity to flesh out the three cops a little more for the film so that audiences have more to root for than a violent cop.
It is possible that Kolstad will have the Streets of Rage movie adaptation follow a similar premise to John Wick in which the film will be less focused on establishing a story or plot and more focused on making sure that they get as much violence into the film as possible.
In the past game, adaptations have been as well received by gamers as book adaptations have been received by Readers (not well), fortunately, Streets of Rage is a game where developers just have to stick to the designs and basic story concept that was provided to them by the source material and they shouldn’t have too much to worry about.
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