I just recently got back from watching the Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li movie, and the review will be going up later today. But before that, I just wanted to sit down and figure something out with all of you.
Unlike the Resident Evil films, Capcom has actively branded themselves in this film, labeling it a Capcom production and all that. Normally, companies don't do that unless they're going to be actively pursuing the medium and want to make themselves into a greater presence in the industry and promote brand identity.
Unsurprisingly, the film does leave itself open for a sequel -- I mean, this film essentially acts as backstory to the Street Fighter tournament -- and so it makes me wonder if Capcom is considering turning some of their other properties into films.
Resident Evil was too successful to warrant a reboot, with each film garnering over $100 million worldwide. They could go in a totally different direction with it, but the property is mostly in Sony's hands, it seems. There's always the possibility of a Strider or Final Fight movie, but neither of these have as pervasive an identity in the world as Street Fighter or Resident Evil. There is the Lost Planet film that's in development, but I don't really know how much of a hand Capcom has in that.
I fully expect Street Fighter to be fairly profitable for Capcom, so there's no real reason why they shouldn't continue pushing this. I just have a feeling this is going to become a much bigger part of their agenda after this film.
Contest:
1:20 PM on 02.27.2009 | 
A Mega Man movie, however... oh the possibilities.
I never understood why they don't just follow the games narrative in films.
Films do it when they are ripping off books.
I want to see Resident Evil 1 done exactly how it was told in the actual game.
I completely expect to see Mega Man: Deadly Alliance starring Paul Hogan and Robin Williams in theaters next year.
Because the original narrative of Resident Evil 1 is nothing special and would make a horrible film. I wrote a cblog on this subject a few years back, and recently Leigh Alexander basically made my same points on Kotaku with much better writing.
@StMcDuck:
Somehow I can actually imagine Robin-Williams playing Dr. Light.
Taking chances costs money, if they gotta make a bit extra on the side fair enough.
[I still get my lost planet 2 either way]
A larger role in maintaining the properties is what game companies need to do when crossing over into other branches of the entertainment media. Gabe Newell metioned this if you check out his keynote address at DICE [very surprised that was never mentioned on the front page here at Dtoid].
Hollywood is notorious for getting the rights to properties and changing everything about it as if the insiders knew better. It was basically a scam that tickets would be sold based on the name alone. Super Mario Bros. is and always will be the prime example of how not to make a video game movie.
ps- i do like the RE movies. they are so bad they're good.