[Vic Viper]

Namco's popular fighting game, Soul Calibur, is coming to the big screen courtesy of producer Warren Zide (American Pie, Final Destination). The Hollywood Reporter tips that Zide has just acquired the movie rights to the game which will be the first at his new Sony-based production company, Anthem Pictures.


The story revolves around two warriors who are chosen by Shaolin monks to recover and destroy a powerful sword, Soul Edge, that has fallen into the hands of an evil prince who plans to use it to open the gates of hell and destroy the world.

Soul Calibur, originally released for Sega's defunct Dreamcast console, raised the bar for fighting games – it won the IGN Editor's Choice Award and was hailed as "the most enjoyable fighting game on the planet." The game has spawned a popular sequel for the PlayStation 2, the Nintendo GameCube and Microsoft's Xbox. The sequel has sold over 5 million units on all platforms and it won the best fighting game award at last year's E3 gaming conference.

Matthew Rhodes and Noel Vega are producing the movie with Anthem. Jesse Warshal is reportedly overseeing it at Anthem.

Martial arts master and actor Sammo Hung (Mr. Nice Guy, TV's Martial Law) had previously pursued the movie rights to Soul Calibur, but nothing ever came together and Namco took their property elsewhere.

There are no details on when the film might go into production, but we'll be following it for ya right. Keep checking IGN FilmForce's games-to-film page for the latest.

linky