(Un)Official STREET FIGHTER Site To Announce Robin Shou?

The not-entirely-official Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li production site teased, weeks ago, that someone other than Rick Yune was taking on a major role. New rumors suggest that someone is Mortal Kombat's Robin Shou.
On April 10th, screenwriter Justin Marks and his team sent an email to JOSH TYLER at Cinema Blend, announcing a new production blog for Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li, which is being updated right from the set.

"If it doesn’t look very professional, it’s because the blog isn’t something put together by the studio," wrote Tyler. "It’s only semi-official. It’s being run by a guy named AARON HORWITZ, who, seems to be simply doing it in his spare time. In fact, when I asked them, the film’s distributor 20th Century Fox had no idea the site even exists."

So while it’s being updated by someone involved with the film, as confirmed by Marks, the site is not studio-produced, but is a labor of love by an SF fan.

"Welcome one and all to the OFFICIAL BLOG for Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li!" began the cheery April 3rd introductory posting by Horwitz, who announced that he was "comin’ to ya live from location in Bangkok, Thailand where all the action (and believe me we’ve had plenty of it) has been goin’ down every day."

"Three sentences into his little b-ball shtick I wanted to slap him upside the head," groaned Cinematical's ERIK DAVIS. "Why does he have to write as if he's speaking to a group of 12-year-old males with plastic Nunchucks in their hands? Seriously dude. Lay off the cool, MTV-style hip hop flava-talk for a second and tell us about the film."

Horwitz opened his "First Official Set Report" by noting that Daredevil star Michael Clarke Duncan, who plays Balrog (a boxer in the video game) "has been doing what he does best—-smashing sh*t up and having a flippin’ blast doing it. It’s also worth mentioning that this man does ALL HIS OWN STUNTS. And its not cuz there’s a shortage of 6 foot 6 inch, 275+ pound African-Americans in Thailand! After watching the man in action these past few days, I can say with complete confidence that this was truly the role he was born to play."

Other performers now shooting include Kristin Kreuk (Smallville, above right) as the titular Chun Li, Josie Ho (Naked Ambition) as Cantana, Chris Klein (Rollerball) as Nash, Moon Bloodgood (Pathfinder, left) as Maya, and "400 Thai extras."

Speaking of cast, Horwitz went on to report that "the integral role of GEN will be played by none other than...tune in next week to find out!" He closed that teaser with the intriguing parenthetical "it's NOT who you think."

Horwitz's cryptic message would suggest that the previously announced Rick Yune has left the production. If so, who will take on this "integral role"?

Moviehole's CLINT MORRIS heard "an unconfirmed whisper" on Monday (April 14) that martial artist Robin Shou (Mortal Kombat, top) has been tapped to replace Yune as Gen, a master assassin who briefly trained the young Chun Li.

"I think there's some truth in this," professed Morris. "Why? Firstly, Yune's name is no longer listed as part of the official production blog...[while] everyone else in the cast is listed there." For his second point, he pointed to Horwitz's parenthetical teaser.

If Shou is indeed the new Gen, it marks a return to "major" motion pictures for the actor who has "been busting his butt to get work the last ten years," with his most significant recent American role being "Pirate Master" in D.O.A Dead or Alive, another video game adaptation.

"Shou's a kick-ass martial artist, and has a pretty big following," noted Morris, "so he could be a good catch for the flick."

However, there has been no confirmation yet, and Horwitz failed to fulfill his promise to reveal the mystery actor on the still "under construction" official blog last week.

Directed by Andrzej Bartkowiak (Cradle 2 the Grave), Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li also stars Neal McDonough (Tin Man) as M Bison, Edmund Chen (The Eye) as Huang, Pei Pei Cheng (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) as Zhilan, and Taboo of The Black Eyed Peas as Vega. Production Designer Michael Hanan (The Punisher), Cinematographer Geoff Boyle (Mutant Chronicles) and Editor Derek Brechin (The Bourne Ultimatum) round out the main crew. Action, stunts and martials arts are being choreographed by Dion Lam (The Matrix and Spider-Man trilogies) and "his bad-ass Hong Kong Martial Arts team."



Along with his first blog post, Horwitz included some of artist Ted Boonthanakit's storyboards, which obviously were created after the casting of Kreuk as Chun Li.
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PAnthony
4/15/2008
Street Fighter Movie Blog