More news from Comic-Con…
The basics: His name is Joey Ansah (photo above) son of celebrated Ghanaian fashion designer Kofi Ansah; nephew of award-winning Ghanaian film-maker Kwaw Ansah. His mother is British.
He also happens to be a martial artist, trained in Tae Kwon Do and Capoeira. And, by the way, he was Desh in The Bourne Ultimatum. Remember that killer extended fight scene he did with Matt Damon? That was our Joey.
In 2010, he made a short live action version of Street Fighter, the video game, which he was a labor of love and a passion project for Mr Ansah, who not only conceived and pitched the project, but also co-directed, co-wrote and choreographed it, as well as had a cameo appearance in it!
Titled Street Fighter: Legacy, it was even officially endorsed by Capcom, the producers of the video game.
As of today, the short film, which is on YouTube, has been viewed over 3.7 million times!
And also announced today, at Comic-Con, Capcom is moving ahead with a live action series based on its Street Fighter, to be titled Street Fighter: Assassin's Fist, to be distributed worldwide in 2013.
The series will center on the game's 2 key players, Ken and Ryu, during their formative years, as they live "traditional warrior lives" in Japan.
Further…
The boys are, unknowingly, the last practitioners of the ancient fighting style known as "Ansatsuken" (Assassin's Fist) and follows them as they learn about the mysterious past of their Master, Gouken, and the tragic and dark legacy of the Ansatsuken style.
And guess who the director of the series will be? None other than Joey Ansah of course, from a script he co-wrote with Christian Howard, who starred in the live action short film.
He apparently also created this new series.
"Street Fighter: Assassin's Fist will be what fans have been waiting for… Legacy was a taster; a glimpse of what a live-action 'Street Fighter' should be," Ansah said.
Co-writer Howard added, "Our priority is to stay true to the appearance, fighting techniques and canon of the 'Street Fighter' game. At the same time we've managed to make this an emotion and character driven story, which will surprise viewers who might just be expecting a super faithful fight fest."
Well that's promising.
Good luck to Ansah and company. We'll be looking out for this next year, although I'm sure there'll be teases released before then.
So who's looking forward to this?
Here's the 2010 live action short film Ansah created that's been viewed almost 4 million times on YouTube alone:
