Actor and filmmaker Joey Ansah is front and center this week in the wake of Machinima’s mismanged Amazon Prime release of the four-part live-action minseries, Street Fighter: Resurrection. On Tuesday, Ansah took to his fanpage on Facebook to share a fantastic alternative promotional one-sheet for the series, in addition to announcing the news pertaining to the series’s accidental upload and subsequent removal from Amazon Prime branches in the U.K., German and Japan in the wake of its North American availability this week.
“Despite SFR also appearing available to view on UK, JP & DE Amazon Prime yesterday, this was in fact an upload error by Machinima/Amazon and the series has been taken down in those locations.” says Ansah. “SFR will not be available on Amazon in any country other than U.S.A. How such an upload error is even possible on such a huge platform is beyond us. We are launching an investigation into how such a foul up happened.”
Following the five-year long, evolutionary success of Ansah’s 2014 webseries/feature film release, Street Fighter: Assassin’s Fist, Machinima insisted its own interest in collaborating with Ansah on a project in lieu of Capcom’s game release, “Street Fighter V”. Together with a solidified deal to present the film on Verizon’s go90 mobile application, Machinima fully financed and thereby debuted Street Fighter: Resurrection, with arbitrary control over its global distribution. As such, the series was made available solely to U.S. consumers, much to the chagrin of the worldwide fanbase Ansah accrued. Machinima and AMC Internatarional Partners Iberia also announced a package deal to release the series on a diverse gaming network for audiences in Spain and Portugal.
“Unlike SFAF, Machinima fully financed SFR and as a result control all international distribution.” Ansah adds. “We were initially led to believe during production of SFR that the series would be as easily viewable internationally by our fans as SFAF was. This turned out not to be the case, despite continued protests by us.”
Street Fighter: Assassin’s Fist stars, actors Mike Moh and Christian Howard reprise their roles for the show which introduces actor and martial artist Alain Moussi (Kickboxer: Vengeance, Kickboxer: Retaliation), leading the story of two warriors of Hadou, and a fledgeling martial arts heiress who find themselves swept into an reanimated supersoldier’s mission to thwart the sale of a deadly weapon being engineered and sold by a criminal mastermind thought to be long dead. Martial arts and stunt exponents, actresses Natasha Hopkins and Katrina Durden (Marvel’s Doctor Strange) also star with appearances by Amy Johnston (Lady Bloodfight) and multi-decorated martial artist and instructor, actor Silvio Simac (Undisputed 2: Last Man Standing, Transporter 3).
“The SFAF and SFR creative team are fully aware of how frustrating, strange, restrictive and disenfranchising the release of SFR has been to the people who matter: YOU, our fans.” continued Ansah in an emphatic apology to fans. “Believe us when we say we are deeply sorry and share your frustration and have long since gone collectively bald from tearing our hair out. We have learnt from this unfortunate situation and assure you any future SF live action productions from us will NOT be in partnership with companies that cannot guarantee a transparent, easy to access distribution. Thanks for your understanding and continued support and please keep faith in us.”
Updates currently remain pending on the progress behind Street Fighter: World Warrior which tentatively has Street Fighter: Assassin’s Fist producer Jacqueline Quella and co-producer Mark Wooding attached as of the announcement in 2014. Stay tuned for more updates as things develop.
