We've been talking about it for months, and it’s still hard to believe that someone is actually making another Street Fighter movie. At some point I guess I’ll need to get over it, I can’t start every news story on its production with bald-faced incredulity, but for now I plan on remaining incredulous. Street Fighter? Really? The game isn’t even popular anymore, to say nothing of the bad taste the first movie left in everyone’s mouth. What’s the point?
Not only is the movie happening, but tonight Variety is reporting that they’ve locked up a lot of their casting. First they confirm that as rumored, Kristen Kreuk will indeed star in the film as Chun Li, the tightly wrapped female martial artist from the Street Fighter games. Also in primary the cast is Michael Clarke Duncan as the obligatory giant black guy boxer Balrog (aka M. Bison), nearly famous actor Chris Klein as Nash (aka Charlie), and Rick Yune as the mystical assassin Gen.
Less noteworthy bit players in the film include Moon Bloodgood, Blackeyed Peas member Taboo, Edmund Chen, and Hong Kong star Cheng Pei Pei.
No one seems to know what the film will be about this time, but we have known for awhile that the movie will be focused primarily on Chun Li. That means this thing rests on the shoulders of Kreuk, best known as angsty boy Superman’s love interest Lana Lang on Smallville; or to those of you smart enough not to watch UPN, as a Neutrogena pitch woman. With Kreuk as the movie’s “big star”, I wouldn’t bet on this being a major summer tentpole. But if there’s a silver lining here it’s that the casting of people like Kreuk and Duncan insures that this will be a massively different movie than the first one, which was powered by half-assed action stars and bad special effects. I’ve never seen Kreuk do even the splits, let alone a convincing flying kung fu kick. Maybe Chun Li will fight the bad guys by serving them tepid coffee while waiting for Superman to show up and save her cute, vaguely Asian ass.
