Streets of Rage movie from John Wick creator picked up by Lionsgate

News
By published

This means the adaptation has a much bigger chance of actually happening

Streets of Rage 4
(Image credit: Dotemu)

A movie adaptation of the classic side-scrolling beat 'em up video game series Streets of Rage has been acquired by Lionsgate.

As reported by Deadline, the Streets of Rage movie is being written by Derek Kolstad, a filmmaker best known for creating the John Wick franchise. Kolstad also wrote two episodes of the Disney Plus series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. He's also signed on to produce the Streets of Rage movie alongside Sega's Toru Nakahara, who produced the first two Sonic movie adaptations; dj2 Entertainment's Dmitri M. Johnson, Timothy I. Stevenson, and Dan Jevons; and Escape Artists' Todd Black, Jason Blumenthal and Tony Shaw

"When Dmitri first mentioned the idea of cracking a Streets of Rage movie, I was so immediately freaking in," Kolstad said in a statement. "And to play with Sega? The 10-year-old me is still grinning."

"The game has a rich world and narrative, and we’re thrilled to be reuniting with Derek to bring it to life," said Lionsgate's president of production, Erin Westerman.

It's far too early to know whether Streets of Rage will join the ranks of the best video game movies ever, but there's plenty of good stuff to stream on our list of the Best Netflix movies.

Jordan Gerblick
Jordan Gerblick

After earning an English degree from ASU, I worked as a corporate copy editor while freelancing for places like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. I got my big break here in 2019 with a freelance news gig, and I was hired on as GamesRadar's west coast Staff Writer in 2021. That means I'm responsible for managing the site's western regional executive branch, AKA my home office, and writing about whatever horror game I'm too afraid to finish.