Street Fighter: drugs, tragedy and behind the scenes of the 1994 film

street fighterit’s going to be made into a movie – again! A few days after the announcement that the Legendary Entertainment acquired the rights to adapt the game for cinema and TV, the producer, in partnership with capcomannounced that a new version for the big screen had been greenlit.

📣 A new live-action Street Fighter movie is in the works! Co-produced by @Legendary Entertainment and Capcom. More news to come in the future! 👀 #StreetFighterpic.twitter.com/DyvjyWkXi2

— Street Fighter (@StreetFighter) April 5, 2023

Details of the adaptation are yet to be confirmed, but the new film is expected to arrive some three decades after a first – and infamous – adaptation. In 1994, Street Fighter: The Final Battle premiered in theaters, becoming legendary in a short time, but for the wrong reasons.

success in games

In 1994, Street Fighter II was one of the most popular fighting games in the world, alongside Mortal Kombat. Developed for arcades, the game gained immense public support, with versions and expansions for video game consoles, such as Mega Drive and Super Nintendo, selling 15 million copies worldwide.

From the small screens to the big screens

the feature Street Fighter: The Final Battle was approved and funded mainly by Capcom, the Japanese gaming giant, owner of the franchise. For the direction, was chosen Steven E. de Souza – a talented screenwriter, known primarily for action films such as Hard to killbut with no directing experience at the time (via The Guardian).

stars and anonymous

More than financing the film, Capcom ended up having the final word on several aspects of the production – the most famous was the hiring of Jean-Claude Van Damme, one of the biggest names in cinema at the time, for the role of Guile. The problem was the cost: Van Damme alone ended up taking $8 million out of the film’s $35 million total budget.

With this choice, plus Raul Julia, selected to live the villain Mr. Bison, the film would have very little money to invest in the rest of the cast, relegating the other roles to hitherto unknown actors, such as Byron Mann, damian plate, Ming-Na Wen It is wes studio. The exception was Kylie Minogue – the singer was already known when she was hired following a recommendation from a union in Australia, the country where most of the film was recorded.

Star dust

More than one of the biggest stars of the moment, Jean-Claude Van Damme was also a problem for the film for another reason. At the time, he was mired in a troubling addiction to cocaine. He would later admit that he had been inhaling 10 grams of the drug a day. To the The Guardian, director De Souza recalls that the actor missed several recordings, claiming to be sick. He sometimes traveled to Hong Kong on weekends: “On Mondays, he just wasn’t there.” Keith Heygate, the film’s assistant director, also points out Van Damme’s star attacks, such as aggressiveness on set and the requirement to install a gym in the presidential suite where he was installed.

Re-recordings

After the end of the recordings in Australia and Thailand, De Souza had to go back to the studio several times, building in Canada scenarios that emulated Southeast Asia. That’s because many of the film’s fight choreography would have been ‘too cartoonish’.

Furthermore, a week before the delivery of the finished film to the Motion Picture Association of America, the agency that gives ratings in the United States, there was a massacre at a school, which would end up toughening censorship of shots of violence. Therefore, Street Fighter: The Final Battle it earned an R rating (recommended only for people over 17 years old or minors accompanied by parents) and had to go back to the editing room – at the expense of a lot of scissors in the final cut.

Good memories

If Van Damme left the production with star fame, other colleagues left good memories in the cast. One of them was Kylie Minogue, who made a point of ensuring fun times for her colleagues, going so far as to book a nightclub for a party with everyone. “We bonded a lot because we were the only women on set. We would always go out to dinner together. She’s a lovely, sweet human being,” he recalls. Ming-Na Wenwhich gave life to Chun-Li.

Another name that left good memories was Raul Julia. The actor, who played M. Bison, had terminal stomach cancer during filming. He would end up victimized just weeks before the premiere. However, colleagues remember him fondly (via CinePop). During part of the production, he would record accompanied by his wife and children. “He wasn’t a movie star or a celebrity – he was an actor in the truest sense of the word,” recalls Robert Mammonewho played Blanka in the film.

success at last

Despite being considered one of the worst video game adaptations in cinema history to this day, Street Fighter: The Final Battle has become something of a cult classic – largely due to the very chaotic outcome of the production. Its low rating on sites like IMDB (where it is rated 4/10) and Rotten Tomatoes (with only 11% critical approval, 20% audience) also doesn’t reflect the commercial success it was at the time, grossing almost US $100 million on top of an initial cost of $35 million. A more than positive prognosis for the successor announced in 2023.