With the latest Mortal Kombat movie rumors sparking a surprised reaction [full story], we're reminded that you can never take for granted what will eventuate from the adaptation process.

Video games have now spent decades flirting with cinema, but in that time, very few movies have broken through an assumed stigma of incompatibility that still exists between the interactivity of games, and the plot structure of popular film. For prominent figures like film critic, Roger Ebert -- who infamously wrote in a 2010 blog, "... video games can never be art." -- the flaw may be presumed to lie in the source.

Despite the inherent similarities between these audio-visual mediums, which fans are no doubt more sympathetic to, critics and audiences have often agreed upon the failings of big screen adaptations, resulting in as many financial flops, as bad reviews.

In the eyes of many, the fighting genre has been particularly guilty of wasting time and money. Typically deviating wildly from the spirit of what made characters successful, fighting game films have contributed some of the most costly disappointments to DVD bargain bins. Infamous titles like; Tekken (2010), The King of Fighters (2009) and The Legend of Chun-Li (2009) have worked hard to earn the mutual ire of critics, fans and audiences alike, shedding dollars in the process. Indeed, as recent reference documents, time and experience has not improved the output of video game adaptations, at all.

Released theatrically in 1995, Mortal Kombat has managed to remain one of the most successful and best regarded movies of its type.

Even before Mortal Kombat: Legacy wrapped its short online run [last year], rumors of an inevitable big screen return for the Dragon Logo have run rife. After months without news, plot details have been [allegedly] unearthed in an exclusive update from horror movie super-site, Bloody Disgusting.

Supermarket Sweep Kick: MK Movie to Spill Blood in Aisle 3?

Netherrealm Studios has sent out flattened renders (artwork) from the original cyborg assassin tandem of Sektor and Cyrax for January 24's Mortal Monday weekly event!

Kotaku has posted an intriguing article where they interview Ed Boon about the future of Mortal Kombat, Life after Midway Games and what's in store for Netherrealm Studios. Below are a few excerpts of interest.

Though E3 has wrapped up this year, immediately afterward a couple of new interviews appeared with series co-creator Ed Boon. Though nothing groundbreaking is revealed in these interviews, each have interesting tidbits that are of note. Beginning with Giant Bomb, Ed talked a bit about the reasoning behind returning to 2D gameplay, fatalities and made a few quirky comments about everyone's favorite love-to-hate character, Stryker. A few pieces from the interview:

It’s yet to be officially confirmed by anyone whether this is some sort of teaser for an upcoming film or the next game. As well, WB Games has yet to make any kind of official statement. From TRMK:

In addition to being available on Blu-Ray and Netflix, as reported earlier, the Mortal Kombat movies are now available in the Apple iTunes store as well!

"We're thrilled to add this property to the iTunes lineup," said Eddy Cue, Apple's vice president of iTunes. "The Mortal Kombat films, while available for the iPod and AppleTV, have never looked better than they do on the iPad."

"Besides the movies, we have also made available the films' accompanying soundtracks, the two TV shows [MK: Conquest and MK: Defenders of the Realm], the straight-to-video release [MK: The Journey Begins], the online-exclusive fights [MK: Federation of Martial Arts], and for the first time ever on video - the Mortal Kombat Live Tour!" explains Martin Tremblay, president of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. "We've also had some success on iTunes with digital comics books on some of our DC properties such as Superman: Red Son, and so we will be adding the Mortal Kombat comics later on in the year, as well."

To visit the iTunes store directly, click here. A big thanks go to Apple Insider for the word on this update!

Fans of Mortal Kombat: The Movie rejoice! In addition to the Canadian Blu-Ray release later this month, the video-by-mail giant Netflix is also making the movie available for its members as one of its "Watch Instantly" collection.

This is big news as more and more devices such as PS3, Xbox 360, Tivo Premiere, and even certain televisions are showing support for this feature.

In somewhat related news, Street Fighter: The Movie has also been made available for streaming as well. Coincidence, or a sign of grudging acceptance of video game movies in general?

Thanks again to samus_aran3900 for another News Lead!

With recent reports of the third MK movie being started up again by Warner Bros., it was only a matter of time before Threshold Entertainment voiced its concerned about its own intellectual property rights on the Franchise.

Apparently, Threshold had signed a contract with Midway to renew its rights to the films as recently as 2006. Warner Bros. has selected a screenwriter (Oren Uziel) apparently without any involvement from Threshold, therefore they have filed a new breach of contract lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court stating that WB "has avoided communicating with Threshold and has in bad faith prevented Threshold from utilizing the interest they have in the MIDWAY property".

Interestingly enough, the complaint also mentions separate litigation from Threshold Entertainment against Warner Bros. for the rights to the two previous films.

Ed Boon, commenting from Twitter, had this to say:

February 17, 2010: Must. Bite. Tongue. Harder.... http://tinyurl.com/ylejpnu

So, who really is entitled to produce the third Mortal Kombat film - Warner Bros. or Threshold? Does Midway's bankruptcy and subsequent purchase by WB negate Threshold's rights, or not? These are the questions that will be decided in court, but its the fans who could ultimately lose, as there currently seems to be no end in sight for the nearly 15 years the movie's been in "development hell".

To read Threshold's original complaint in its entirety, click here (PDF format). To read the article on Kotaku, click here.

Thanks again to samus_aran3900 for yet another News Lead!

Update: February 25, 2011 – Warner Bros. won a major victory in a Los Angeles Superior Court this week, with the finding that a December ruling judgment for them to pay Threshold $14,000 rendered the rest of the case moot. (The original amount of the lawsuit against Warner Bros. was for $9.3 million). Warner Bros. wrote, in a statement to Hollywood Reporter regarding how WB honored the contract regarding income from the first two MK movies:

"We are very pleased that the court dismissed Threshold’s multi-million dollar claims... This victory fully vindicates Warner’s position that it accounted to Threshold fairly, appropriately and according to the parties’ contract."

While this seems to clear the way for Warner Bros. to proceed with releasing the Mortal Kombat films on Blu-Ray unhindered [full story], Threshold has announced plans to appeal and additionally, has 2 separate pending lawsuits against Warner Bros., one of them potentially hindering their ability to proceed with the upcoming Mortal Kombat live action series..

The folks over at Bloody Disgusting are reporting that Warner Bros. are in the process of making a new Mortal Kombat movie; as earlier reports have rumored, this movie will supposedly be a reboot of the movie franchise. The screenwriter is a virtual unknown, but has won an award for his previous unfilmed work. From the story: