Hi SFAF fans, Joey here. It has been a long time since the last update on this page and figured it was a good time to update our fanbase on the status of SFWW or any follow up to SFAF:
As you may all remember, SFAF was made on an extremely tight budget of $2.5million and a lot of personal financial investment and deferment from all the key cast and crew. All the money went on the screen and not in our pockets to give the best possible product. Making it this way allowed me to maintain full creative control (which is a rarity in movie making). The streamlined story largely set in the Japanese wilderness of Ryu, Ken, Gouken, Akuma etc allowed us to create a high production value on a tight budget. To expand the story to encompass the World Warrior storyline, locations and large roster of characters would require a hugely increased budget and hour long episodes like most cable series we all love to watch. To guarantee the kind of production value (and budget that a SFWW TV show truly deserves) means partnering with a large Studio backed production company. With many studios interested we partnered with one that we believed best understood the 'vision' and more importantly understood the creative process that made SFAF what it was.
However working with Studios is never straight forward, contract making takes time (years) in that time, creative execs come and go from a studio, so who you end up working with down the line calling the shots on your show's development may well not be the person you originally pitched to and believed in. You are at the mercy of trying to work as best you can with all the players involved when things finally get moving. As the process developed it was clear that despite being an exec Prod. on the show, I wouldn't be the lead writer or director of the show, and without being in creative control, I would not be able to guarantee an authentic continuation of the SF story in live-action that you have grown to love and support. In any case, without going into too much detail, the Studio we had partnered with had a finite number of years to develop and sell the show to a channel or network, before the contract would elapse. Sadly after all was said and done, an effort to sell the developed show by the Studio happened too close to the gate and didn't land in time. So the rights sit back with Capcom. Hard to fathom that 5 years of work, energy and frustration in the studio system for myself, Jacky and Mark have led to nada....back to Square 1.
So in a nut shell do not expect a follow up series anytime in the immediate to near future. Horrible news I know, but all we can do is look forward. I still have a fantastic relationship with Capcom and the fight to do something with them in this space is not over! Over these 5 years I've developed some incredible creative material that in the meantime could see the light of day as a Graphic novel etc. while my team navigate ways to still bring authentic live action SF to the screen. Thanks for your patience, I know this isn't the update you were hoping for, but you deserve to know the truth.
Thanks as always for the love and support for the body of SF work we've done thus far.
Big love from myself and the rest of the team.
~Joey
