There are only 16 days left for the Kickstarter campaign to help get the funding needed for the series production of STREET FIGHTER: ASSASSIN’S FIST.
Co-creator and co-star of the Capcom-backed series and 2010 Street Fighter Legacy shortfilm Joey Ansah has been urgently and adamantly pushing for public funding for the project since backing away from other major financiers who were willing to grant the project with strings attached. As it is expected that Ansah and co-creator and stunt performer Christian Howard will reprise their roles from Legacy as Akuma and Ken, respectively, the official Facebook page recently began announcing new actors to be attached to the project, including Kyle Pryor as Ken’s father, XMA stunt performer and actor Mike Moh as Ryu, and Japanese actors Togo Igawa as Gotetsu, Akira Koieyama as Gouken and the latest name from the far east, Japanese actor Shogen as Koieyama-san’s younger counterpart of the same role.
This week, however, the internet exploded with news from Shogun Gamer in an interview about the campaign, and the future casting of characters for a more expansive scope in the live-action mode for Street Fighter should the Kickstarter succeed. To say the least, the name of martial arts action superstar Scott Adkins came up:
“I’ll tell fans now, if we succeed with Assassin’s Fist and move on to the World Warrior I can say now that I want Scott to be my Guile. Look at how Scott looks in Undisputed 2 and imagine that but with blonde hair and an American accent. He would make a killer Guile.”
Ansah and Howard will soon be joining Adkins and in the soon-to-be-released film, Green Street Hooligans 3: Underground, directed by James Nunn. In the meantime, the STREET FIGHTER: ASSASSINS FIST fundraiser continues, but the pace is a slow trickle with only 16 days left. And personally, I am not alone in saying that I want to see the man who made Yuri Boyka a household name get the part and flashkick Vega in his pretty face someday! So get this article to the nearest Street Fighter fans in your neighborhood and spread the word!
UPDATE (6:45 PM EST) – The STREET FIGHTER: ASSASSINS FIST Kickstarter campaign ended today due to the slow pace of funding. Fortunately, there is good news, courtesy of the series Facebook page:
Some exciting news! Some of you may have already notice our kickstarter campaign has been cancelled. But don’t worry the Assassin’s Fist project is still going ahead! Those of you that have donated to the kickstarter page may have already seen a message left by writer and director Joey Ansah. For your convenience I’ve pasted it below.”Just in case you haven’t seen our ‘Update’ announcement I’ll publish it here.》I’m delighted to announce some very exciting news!
Although the KickStarter campaign has built a little slowly it has brought a couple of supporters to us who really love what we are trying to do. In fact they love it so much they are going to back us with the money we need to get started.So we are pleased to announce that we look like we are good to go, and our vision of a Street Fighter series made by fans for fans will happen.So we’d like to thank everyone who has pledged. Your support has been amazingly encouraging, and we really feel that without you we’d not be where we are. So we’ve taken the decision not to delay getting on with things, by letting the campaign run, and we are going to withdraw the project.
It also means that you, our friends, will not have to dig into your own pockets to help us out, much as we know you were happy to do so. Your pledges will be cancelled. Most of the rewards we’ve published will be available later through commercial channels, so DVDs, t-shirts and books will still be available to you at some point.We really want you to keep in touch so please check out our Facebook page, and website regularly. We’ll have some more cast announcements shortly which we think you’ll love and of course even more news as we start filming.Thanks again you’ve been brilliant supporters and in a very real way have made it all happen.Love, hugs and Shoryukens to you all!”
– Joey Ansah (Writer and Director)