According to Variety, the upcoming Streets of Rage film adaptation from Lionsgate is still moving forward, and it has now assembled a new creative team. According to reports, Sonic the Hedgehog film writers Pat Casey and Josh Miller have joined the project as the movie’s new screenwriters, while acclaimed filmmaker Jeymes Samuel (The Harder They Fall, The Book of Clarence) has signed on to direct.
The project was originally announced in 2022 when Lionsgate acquired the rights to adapt SEGA’s legendary beat-’em-up franchise. At the time, John Wick creator Derek Kolstad was attached to write the screenplay. While Kolstad exited the project, Casey and Miller have now taken over writing duties for the latest draft.
While plot details remain under wraps, the adaptation is said to lean heavily into the elements that made the original games so memorable, including the series’ iconic cast of characters, pulse-pounding electronic soundtracks, and classic side-scrolling beat-’em-up action.
Find out more about the upcoming film by hitting the jump!
For longtime SEGA fans, Casey and Miller’s involvement is particularly noteworthy. The duo helped bring Sonic the Hedgehog successfully to the big screen, with the Sonic film trilogy surpassing $1 billion at the worldwide box office. Their work has been praised for balancing fan service with broad audience appeal, something that could prove valuable when adapting another beloved SEGA franchise.
Meanwhile, director Jeymes Samuel wrote, directed and produced the BAFTA winner “The Harder They Fall” and wrote and directed “The Book of Clarence”.
“We and our partners at Sega knew that Streets of Rage demanded a bold filmmaker,” said Lionsgate Motion Picture Group Chair Erin Westerman. “Jeymes Samuel’s visceral and explosive style — not to mention his signature use of unforgettable music — is perfect for audiences both familiar with and new to the series. We are so excited for how he will bring his own memorable take to this beloved video game IP.”
Originally launched on the SEGA Genesis in 1991, Streets of Rage became one of SEGA’s defining franchises of the 1990s. Known for its cooperative gameplay and legendary soundtracks composed by Yuzo Koshiro and Motohiro Kawashima, the series remains one of the most beloved beat-’em-up franchises in gaming history. The franchise made a triumphant return in 2020 with Streets of Rage 4, which sold over 2.5 million copies and introduced the series to a new generation of players.
The film will be produced by SEGA’s Toru Nakahara alongside Story Kitchen’s Dmitri M. Johnson, Mike Goldberg, and Timothy I. Stevenson. Additional producers include Todd Black, Jason Blumenthal, and Tony Shaw of Escape Artists. Casey and Miller will also serve as executive producers on the project.
No release date has been announced at this time.
What do you think about Pat Casey and Josh Miller taking over writing duties? Are you excited to see Jeymes Samuel’s vision for Streets of Rage? Let us know in the comments below!
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I don’t know what it is, but these films always seen to take years to even get off the ground after they are announced, I remember rumours in 2009 about how SEGA was interested in a Streets of Rage film adaptation alongside the games, then in 2012 again, and more interest in a Golden Axe film too, even an Ecco the Dolphin one, as well as other SEGA classics like Out Run etc and nothing ever seems to come out of it yet again.
Though now the latest news this time is that it is Streets of Rage at the moment that seems to be the most likely so far alongside Out Run, and it’s going through the same motions, taking ages to get and keep the same writers and director on board till it can actually start getting shot and directed to premier release.
That’s true, but it’s the same situation with many if not most Hollywood films, not just movies based on games or Sega IPs in particular. Everybody who has a financial stake in the production also has opinions about who is brought on board, favors they want to give or debts to repay, so the whole apparatus of making a movie is incredibly complex and fragile.
I hope it isn’t Jeymes Samuel, he eill just backwash it what he calls ‘Black Joy’, we don’t need SEGA IPs to start becoming awash with woke far left garbage now.
Only rightwing incels talk like that, take it elsewhere because you’re not in a 4chan racist echo chamber safe space here.
Eh no, normal people who are not weird af left wing woke dysgenic beta cucks, ehich appears to by ehat you are given your unfounded buzzwords like incel? Racist? Wtf? Who even talks like that aside from fugly lefties? Its not 2014, nobody buys your buzzword racist chant seriously, it doesn’t work and is invalid, also Elliot Rodgers was a left wing PUA, not some MGTOW Sigma guy. And Incel was originally invented by a woman called Alyn in 1994 to describe other women like her before people like Elliot Rodgers hijacked it and turned it into their identity as PUAs.
This is a Sega site, not a lefty woke piss contest site for deeply troubled people.
People don’t want their favourite companies and franchises ruined by woke Yank culture that shouldn’t be anywhere near it, keep your race and gender grivance politics to yourself, not interested in it.
I’m confused, where is this so called alleged ‘racism’ of which you speak Zoyous? This tired old claim is often spouted by jumped up little betas in an unsubstantiated manner, often blurted out in an emotively reactive manner devoid of the faculties of reasoning.
I’d rather not bring it down to right vs Left, but there is a reason why all the hard men tend to be right wing generally, while left wing men are generally more weak, submissive and effete.
That was pretty much my point exactly, the immediate response from Zoyous was to go straight into far leftard mode and seemingly presume my use of the term ‘Black Joy’ was some how ‘racist’ (a lose overused Troski term long devauled beyond repair). Says a lot about Zoyous. When the aforementioned director himself that shoehorns his woke-esque racialised politics into productions he has any top level involvement with was the one that invented that term himself ffs.
If this was getting made jn thr 90s, before any of this woke garbage existed, it wouldn’t even be a talking point, people would be more interested in making a quality product production than churning out shoehorned ideology.