Neal McDonough is like the definition of a CHUD favorite character actor. He appears in one or two projects of indisputable greatness (like Band of Brothers) but never quite gets the major career bump from them. He works a bunch, though, and is often the best thing in a pretty terrible movie (hey, The Hitcher!), or on a TV show that’s beneath him – where he is, again, the best thing. Now he’s going to be the best thing in Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, a movie that is taking the GI Joe approach of seriously bizarre casting. Joining McDonough are Smallville’s Kristin Kreuk, Michael Clark Duncan, Chris Klein, Taboo from Black Eyed Peas and, according to the grossly unreliable IMDB, part-time porn star Edison Chen.*
McDonough will be playing villainous M Bison, the role originally essayed by Raul Julia in the barely watchable 1994 film. The new film is being shot right now in Thailand, and is directed by the talented cinematographer and miserable director Andrzej Bartkowiak from a script by Justin Marks, the guy making his living adapting all the 80s properties that mildly autistic 30 year old fanboys slobber over.
*As someone pointed out below, I got Edison and Edmund Chen mixed up. In my defense all I can say is www.alllooksame.com