The path back to cinemas has been long and hard for the once lucrative Mortal Kombat. A theatrical return has long been discussed, but struggles to exit development hell have waned amidst experimental webseries, and changes in culture.
The movie may have received its best backing to date, with The Tracking Board reporting Saw and Insidious director James Wan will join the film as Producer.
Wan is in hot demand of late, working his way from low budget horror to the pinnacle of Hollywood action blockbusters with this year's Furious 7. He's already attached to direct Warner Brother's 2018 superhero franchise builder: Aquaman, with Jason Momoa in the title role. Past Producer credits include the first five Saw sequels.
The Tracking Board cites Oren Uziel (MK: Legacy) and Dave Callaham (Doom) as script writers. The plot remains tangentially related to the fiction of the hugely successful video game series, centering around a "seemingly harmless guy" who discovers his hidden powers, and uses them to enter the tournament. The film has reportedly been described by the studio as "a departure from the mythology" featuring "darker, brutally real martial arts."
Deviations from the games fit previous plot reports, and the work seen in live-action webseries Mortal Kombat: Legacy. Web director Kevin Tancharoen was previously involved in taking his vision to the big screen, but exited the project in October, 2013 [full story].
Mortal Kombat is underway with New Line Cinema and Broken Road Productions (Paul Blart: Mall Cop, Knight and Day). This month marks the 20th anniversary of the first New Line distributed Mortal Kombat movie.
Superhero summer blockbusters and licensed sequels have rewritten the box office rulebook for Hollywood in the 2010s. These days you're nothing if you aren't striving for a total media blitz, building a multi-pronged franchise "universe" across spin-offs and tie-ins. Marvel's Avengers has become the multimedia benchmark, extending its Disney-owned tendrils across multiple major movies, an on-going television series, several upcoming Netflix original series, and various other projects. It's the model everyone now aspires to - but did you know Mortal Kombat actually kinda did it already in the nineties?
The announcement of the first-ever Region 2 DVD release of Mortal Kombat: Conquest - The Complete Series has stirred a massive amount of interest within the fan kommunity. As well it should! Conquest isn't just a time-locked series that's only been available in its entirety to digital pirates, Australians [via a 2005 Region 4 release], and devotees of late night reruns. It's a unique piece of Kombat franchise history, and a rare example of a video game license thriving in a film environment.
Whether you're new to Conquest and the world created by Larry Kassanoff and his Threshold Entertainment Group, or simply revisiting, we hope you'll join us as we look back at what we generously consider the Mortal Kombat Cinematic Universe. Here's the rundown:
Universal Pictures' 2013 martial arts fantasy 47 Ronin may have come and gone with devastatingly little fanfare -- but it seems its samurai star Keanu Reeves has caught the eye of Ed Boon. The Mortal Kombat franchise co-creator tweeted his fantasy kombat kasting, endorsing the actor as a "great" option for Kenshi.
In an interview with Film Combat Syndicate; Streamy Award winning choreographer Larnell Stovall has discussed his hopes for the ill fated Mortal Kombat feature film.
In a brief tweet: Kevin Tancharoen has apparently signalled his departure from the Mortal Kombat movie franchise.
The director launched Mortal Kombat: Legacy Season II at the end of September [watch], and had been discussing a third online season throughout promotion [read more]. He cites other creative opportunities as motivation for leaving the long rumoured feature film.
After 3 years of Kombat,I've decided to move on to other creative opportunities. I wish everyone involved in the movie big success. Thanks!
— Kevin Tancharoen (@KTANCH) October 25, 2013
Tancharoen exploded onto the scene in 2010 when his unofficial Mortal Kombat: Rebirth short went viral. The live-action footage soon won him the directors chair for Mortal Kombat: Legacy, with plans for a feature film to follow. The online series served as prominent cross-promotion for the 2011 Mortal Kombat game, and rebooted the license under Warner Brothers. Legacy was reported to set a new benchmark for online serial content with millions of views, becoming one of the most watched shows of its kind in YouTube history [more].
While there was certainly success; Tancharoen's individualist approach to the established Mortal Kombat trademarks was always divisive. The initial impact of Rebirth's severe tone found and defined an audience eager for violence and self-seriousness. Legacy struggled to have it both ways thereafter: Neither faithful to the hugely successful source material of the games, nor the vastly removed, urban reinvention of Rebirth. Legacy II utilized core storylines from the games and previous films, but radically rewrote and recast characters and scenarios. It received the most mixed critical response from fans.
Released together; the ten episodes of Legacy II have struggled to recreate the immediate success of the first series. At the time of writing, the first episode boasts over 3.6 million views, but is followed by a 60% drop off that persists as an average just under 1.1 million for the remaining episodes. The penultimate episode [#9] currently has 903,805 views from 3 weeks -- impressive in general, but a step down from the record setting numbers of the virgin series.
If you've ever found yourself wondering what goes on in the head of a Shokan Prince -- Amalgamated Dynamics Inc are all too happy to answer your question!
ADI were the studio responsible for creating practical and animatronic effects for the 1995 Mortal Kombat feature film. More specifically, their work brought one of Mortal Kombat's most iconic characters to life -- the towering, four-armed prince of pain known as Goro!
Not surprisingly, the character presented a series of challenges and technical opportunities during the 1994 production. What resulted was a truly memorable on-screen character. One that, according to the studio, earned the kudos of the likes of Peter Jackson (The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings), who described the creature as, "[a] seminal achievement in animatronics." These feats are in-part on display in the following video, which offers a feature glimpse of the machinery behind the highly emotive creature [below].
Fifteen years after the last Mortal Kombat sequel received its theatrical release -- excerpts from a new production script have been teased by director, Kevin Tancharoen!
Released via micro-blogging site Twitter (@KTANCH), the script snapshots [below] offer the vaguest glimpse into a reboot still largely enshrouded in mystery. Scorpion, Sub-Zero and Jax feature in expected roles, but Kabal adds an unexpected reference to excite fans of the games.
When Mortal Kombat began the journey from sprites to silver screen, production faced a slew of challenges at every conceivable level. As documented by the book Generation Xbox: How Video Games Invaded Hollywood, the obstacles began with the mere idea of a Mortal Kombat movie [full story]. Once greenlit; the realization of iconic, fantastical creatures and abilities from the games would push the makers to devise practical solutions.
Following widely reported plot rumors from the upcoming movie; Mortal Kombat Online yesterday reflected upon the trials and tribulations that face video game adaptations, and Mortal Kombat's trailblazing pedigree in the area [read on].
Through the course of this discussion, we included an excerpt from the Jamie Russel written book, Generation Xbox: How Video Games Invaded Hollywood.
Described as "a story of disaster, triumph and [Angelina] Jolie in hot pants," the book recounts the twenty year relationship between Hollywood and the interactive medium. Containing extensively researched anecdotes and tales from the people involved, [Russel] includes a meaty section regarding Larry Kasanoff and
At the end of last month, we gave away digital copies of the book to followers of our Twitter account (@MK_Online). Now, with permission from the publisher, we present the complete Mortal Kombat extract from Chapter 5: It's A-Me, Mario. For more details about the book, visit the authors website.
