Classic 90s beat-em-up Streets of Rage seems to be the latest video game to get its own movie. According to Deadline, the upcoming video game adaptation is currently underway with John Wick creator Derek Kolstad writing the script.
It certainly feels like a good time for SEGA to adapt several of its existing features, with Sonic the Hedgehog 2 dominating the box office and impressing critics.
Streets of Rage first appeared on SEGA Genesis back in 1991 and has spawned a number of sequels. The side-scrolling beat-em-up tells the story of two former police officers who take to the streets to defeat a spooky crime syndicate.
Since the game’s debut, Streets of Rage games have appeared on the Xbox One, PS4 and even the Nintendo Switch. Among players of a certain age, Streets of Rage is often considered a classic title, so a big-screen adaptation from a successful action instructor feels like a very natural choice.
Streets of Rage will be dj2 Entertainment’s latest video game adaptation, following Sonic the Hedgehog 2’s colossal box office performance. The company will also produce an adaptation of the BAFTA Game Award-winning title, It Takes Two.
Meanwhile, Derek Kolstad is busy working on Just Watch Me – the upcoming Gerard Butler theft film based on Dexter author Jeff Lindsay’s hit novels. But while John Wick 4 and 5 are underway at the moment, they go on without Kolstad.
The latest Streets of Rage game arrived in the form of Streets of Rage 4 back in 2020 and was met with lots of hype.
IGN’s own review said: “Streets of Rage 4 delivers the greatest hits from the classic series and is best when played with at least one friend. If the primary focus was to deliver a traditional Streets of Rage experience with a modern coat of paint, “It’s definitely succeeding. But even if it’s based on a few new and interesting mechanics, it’s still a very conservative update of the quarter-century-old format that feels like a slave to the past.”
How this will translate to the big screen is still unknown.
Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him further Twitter.