For a long, long time, video game movies had a rough reputation. In fact, it wasn’t until the 2018 remake of Tomb Raider that a live-action adaptation of a game earned more than a 50 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes from professional reviewers. That being said, the tide now does seem to be turning, with films earning more critical acclaim and having tremendous success at the box office, and the directors of the upcoming Street Fighter remake attribute those wins to projects being made by filmmakers who have real passion for the material they are adapting.
I caught up with twin Australian directors Danny and Michael Philippou on a press line earlier today at San Diego Comic-Con, where they were promoting their fantastic new horror film Talk To Me, and they briefly discussed their developing Street Fighter feature and the current state of video game movies in general. I asked the siblings about what changes they’ve seen since the early 1990s (when the original live-action Street Fighter was made), and Danny Philippou gave full credit to the filmmakers who are making the adaptations these days:
I think that people are taking the source material a lot more seriously, and people are actually giving justice to the games, which is amazing to see. I think that is the big thing, is that they really tapped into people that love the source material.