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 Paul W.S. Anderson's important journey to making Mortal Kombat -- still one of the most succesful game-based films to date.

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.

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: