Thanks to a PGC reader, we were pointed to a section on Sammo Hung’s official website which has some interesting revelations. For those of you not familiar with Sammo Hung, he is a tremendous martial arts star and director. He is good friends with Jackie Chan, has been in over 160 films and a show for CBS, Martial Law.

It seems that Sammo is very interested in Namco's Soul Calibur franchise and would like to direct the Soul Calibur movie, apparently already a greenlit film project.

Since it seems there is a very good chance we will be receiving the next installment of Soul Calibur, news of a SC movie is somewhat relevant, especially with the recent news of “Crazy Taxi the movie."

Here’s the full report from Sammo’s official site:

SOUL CALIBUR?

Everyone is still waiting for positive word on the Soul Calibur movie, even us. We do know that the producers of Soul Calibur signed a deal with Namco; so far, the movie is a go. Sammo expects to be formally signed on soon as director and possibly to play a role.

Here is more on the movie:

On Thursday, April 12, 2001, the producers (Alan Noel Vega, Michael Cerenzie, Dr. Sam Kute and Joseph Jones) signed a formal letter of intent with Namco vice-chairman Ryuji Hashiguchi to commence development on the movie version of Soul Calibur. Soul Calibur is a Namco-owned video game for the Sega Dreamcast game console that enjoys a global, ensemble cast.

Ratings of the game from various fan sites averaged 9 stars out of 10. Check out gamerankings.com for reviews.

Sammo Hung has also signed a letter of intent to direct Soul Calibur and the producers should officially attach Sammo soon.

The budget for Soul Calibur will depend on the stars and may go up to $50 million. If all goes well, principal photography could commence late Summer/early Fall 2001. Locations may include Eastern Europe (Prague) and parts of China. The planned release date is Summer 2002. Given Namco's relationship with award winning computer special effects house Rhythym and Hues, they are the first choice to do special fx on Soul Calibur.

Namco is the leading video game manufacturer who brought us hits like Pac-Man and Tekken. They are also developing a Soul Calibur game version for the Sony PS2. It would be a plus if the movie and the new game version were released simultaneously.

We invite fans to recommend casting for the characters of Soul Calibur: The Movie.

An interactive movie website is planned that will feature up to date movie information and a contest wherein the winning male and female contestants will get cameos in the movie.

Sites to visit: soulcalibur.com (game site; official movie site to follow); namco.com (Namco's). While there make sure you check out Namco's very cool Macromedia Flash animated Soul Calibur page here:

http://www.namco.com/console/titles/soul_calibur_(dc).html

Stay tuned for more details on Soul Calibur