A lack of female action stars and some firm declining of offers from bigger stars has lead Hyde Park Entertainment to choose a pretty T.V. actress who they hope they can mould into the next Milla Jovovich or Kate Beckinsale for the biggest tentpole currently on their slate. Somehow, I don’t think it’s going to pay off.
Coming Soon have the scoop that SMALLVILLE actress Kristen Kreuk (she plays Lana) has landed the lead role in STREET FIGHTER: LEGEND OF CHUN-LI. She will play Chun-Li, the female fighter on a journey for justice and it’s believed she was far from the studio’s first choice as Kiera Knightley, Jessica Alba and Jessica Biel are said to have turned down the part.
The actress who is 25 next week, has yet to break out into Hollywood roles with her only American film credit so far being the lame comedy EUROTRIP, so this is easily her biggest role to date.
Horrible choice to be honest.
I’m going to have a real hard time believing her to be an action star, just like I do whenever I watch SMALLVILLE and her character suddenely changes into a superhero of her own.
It’s pretty clear she was no where near the calibre of actress they wanted and have just settled here when no higher profile actress would take the part.
The script comes from Justin Marks (he has also scribed the new MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE, VOLTRON and SUPER MAX) and will be directed by DOOM director Andrzej Bartkowiak.
If Bartkowiak couldn’t make DOOM a success, then how the hell are they going to make this STREET FIGHTER movie work with the most uninteresting character from the series’ canon and a T.V. actress with limited talent in the lead role?
Disaster waiting to happen, but we all knew that way back in the Summer. Filming begins March in Thailand, and will be distributed by 20th Century Fox.
9 Comments
God, I haven’t stopped laughing since I heard this! I feel sorry for her, her film career is now officially worse that Tom Welling’s… and that’s going some!
I wonder how many actresses turned this down before they arrived at Kreuk? Ziyi Zhang, Gong Li, Maggie Q, Bai Ling??? I imagine they are all glad they dodged this bullet.
HAHAHA!! A caucasian Chun Li? This is worse than a Hispanic Invisible Woman, and I thought that was pretty stupid.
Caucasian?? Is that sarcasm JaySmack? You are talking about Kreuk right? Not Biel? I don’t get it.
Actually Kristin is highly talented..and saying she is limited in her acting is just plain ignorant or dubious….
If anyone can flesh out this cartoon character it is Kreuk.
I wish her luck in this movie…and with excellent small movies like Partition… I hope this gets her more lead roles in the future with more substance or maybe romantic comedies.
The woman is just stunningly beautiful and has an amazing
acting ability.
Is it a fashion to hate Kreuk?
She will be great! and this is only one film in her career after Smallville.
The woman IS talent, you should watch ‘Partioion’ and i also think she was very good as Lana.
It’s obvious that you didn’t watch Smallville enough, she’s a great actress, also she knows martial arts. Every actor needs a movie for as least being successful in the future. Just like when all the people said that Johnny Depp wasn’t a great actor and look him now or Will Smith.
People do know that she is half asian right?
That’s correct, she is half-Asian. Her mother is Chinese. Her Father is Dutch explaining her last name.
I have seen some of her fighting ability on Smallville. Actually, some of her techniques are very good, quite sharp. So I got curious and checked out her bio on IMDB. It turns out I was correct in my assumption – she has some martial arts training. She’s only listed as a green belt in karate though which explains why she’s not as impressive as say… Jackie Chan or Jet Li or even Sarah Michelle Gellar.. as an action star. But based on what I’ve seen she’s likely to improve in her martial arts abilities given the chance – she has the talent for it.
Honestly, I’d rather see Kristen instead of Kiera portray Chun Li. Kiera’s fighting abilities fall in the realm of school yard chick fight.
(BTW, if anyone wants to doubt my judgment on martial arts abilities, I have 8 plus years of martial arts training. One of my instructors went on to be part of Jackie Chan’s stunt team and another had a stint in a Stephen Seagal film.)
Oh, and who watches the Street Fighter movies for the acting???
They weren’t seriously considering those white girls to play Chun Li were they?
Well in that case, Kristen is easily the best choice, even if she has a darker complexion.