A way to get the MK movie back on track, looking for notes
0
posted01/08/2019 10:30 PM (UTC)by
Avatar
JohnnyCage
Avatar
About Me

Those were $500 sunglasses... Asshole

Member Since
02/15/2003 02:44 AM (UTC)

Long time member here.

over the last 17 years since I joined, a lots happened. For one I'm an independent film producer now, I graduated from FSU and been clawing my way up since.

With that said Im NOT a big deal. I've been involved with a few projects and am trying to push through others but it's a fulfilling life.

Now with the news of the project being put on hold, it means that the people hired have no idea what to do, so I'm going to build a deck, which is what I would show a hypothetical studio as a pitch to get this movie made. Reminder : this is all hypothetical and just for fun.

Examples of what a deck needs:

Who would direct (or want to direct) - Gareth Evans

Rating? PG13 (likely a studio directive)

Budget? $25 million

Locations? China, Indonesia, Georgia (U.S.)

Stars? Donnie Yenn, Jason Statham, Robin Shou, Scott Adkins, Alan moussi, Michelle Waterson.

Length? 90-105 minutes

How many days shooting? 35

Film comparisons

Profit projections

Script?

Synopsis (believe it or not 90% of financers refuse to read an 80 or 100 page script.)

Also there are studio directives (mandates of what the studio wants.) t's just the nature of the business. But we will leave room for them, seeing as One team could have a great idea and get the ball.

So my idea is:

if I get anyone to direct it would likely be Gareth Evans, the man has shown a pension for this sorta thing but MK would likely need to be PG13 for theatres and can have an unrated cut for home. A lot of the money would be sunk into landing Gareth (or he takes a deal where he makes money on ancillary, meaning when the film makes money and goes into profits from streams and distribution)

However it is more likely that an unknown or a director who has done smaller works looking to swing I the big leagues would get the job, likely someone from Indonesian, hong kong or Thai action cinema.

Budget would likely be $25 million USD, not counting advertising (which is really up to the studio, even though we would still pay them back for it on top of the budget, so if they spend $20 million on ads and $25 million on the film we owe $45m + 20% usually. So the film would need to make $55 million to break even. Not counting presales for home digital or streaming/rentals, etc.) Also rebates are NOT taken into account.

As for stars, it would be a lot of guys who are NOT big names, save for 1 or two who may do the project because their kids love MK (it happens)

So 2 roles to identify for bonafide stars would be:

Shang Tung

Scorpion

Raiden

Sonya

Kano

For example -- you could make a nice offer to Jason Statham to play Kano for 7 days of filming and give him a good role. Or you can go after Tony jaa to portray Scorpion for same time and money. (I know what you thinking, but scorpion would have no dialogue outside of voice over so Jaa would merely be the physical portion)

Also who would you get to play Raiden? Chow yun fat would be a good choice, Donnie yen would also be brilliant as shang tsung because his company would invest AND guarantee profit in Hong Kong/China.

So let's say our 2 big stars are :

Jason Statham - Kano

Donnie Yenn - Shang Tsung.

So let's go to our next tier of actors.

For Raiden I say cast Robin Shou, it would be a massive Nod to the fans and that's where the appeal would be. Also it won't be expensive.

Raiden - Robin Shou

Now that we have some spots filled out we go to who would be in this tournament/script.

Baraka- Scott adkins

Jade

Kitana

Mileena - Michelle waterson

Johnny Cage

Liu Kang

Sonya

Jax

Kung Lao

Sub zero

Scorpion

Reptile - Alain moussi

Ermac - Alain moussi

Goro

Kabal (pre injury)

Chan Kang (nod to original film) possibly Joe taslim

Art lean (nod to original film)

Then you would have fillers. Not worth mentioning here.

So who would play them? I'm not 100 % sure, but they would need to be unknowns for Liu, johnny and Sonya (more or less) and the others can come from cross over or the land of stunt men (Scott Adkins, don chupong, Michelle waterson, etc) again all affordable.

Influences:

Enter the Dragon

Bloodsport

Mortal Kombat circa 95.

The raid 1 and 2.

Maybe Big trouble, in little china. *

Plot-

the plot is Shang Tsung is a mob boss of a sect called the black triad in Hong Kong. The regular triads want nothing to do with him, even referring to him as a demon.

No one fucks with him because they believe he is an immortal who steals souls. It's also known that he hosts the mythical Mortal Kombat Kumite* or tournament. It's dismissed as supernatural bullshit by other gangsters but they are all scared shit less of the guy.

Flash forward to a different part of Hong Kong and Chan Kang is fighting of wave after wave of assassins, he puts up a hell of a fight in the style of "the raid" But eventually is killed by Kano and Mileena.

It's here we flash forward to new York where kabal, an undercover cop is found during a sting operation by scorpion and is burned alive by his hell fire post fight. That's it for kabal here but it establishes 2 things (kabal is set up for future film if it happens) and scorpion is established as a bad motherfucker.

From here we see Shang Tsung is killing earth realm warriors BEFORE the tournament by using Kano / the black dragon, mileena, Baraka, etc by hunting those down named in the list, which is made by the gods of earth realmers. (Loophole)

Next we follow Johnny Cage who opens much like in the 95 film (a fan nod) but meets Mileena when he is Partying after. They go back to his room and she turns into that thing and they fight, then reptile and other assassins join and Johnny fights them off.

We go to Liu Kang now, much like In the first, he and his brother grew up in America, but their father escaped with them from the temple of light due to them being direct descendants of the great kung Lao.

Papa Kang did not want their life to be complete shit, training for a tournament they'd likely die in. Also papa Kang trained for a tournament he never fought in, as far as he knows, he wasted his life and maybe the death of wife caused him to flee, this adds emotional weight to the plot.

Sonya is obsessed with tracking Kano, they follow him to the port for the fighters, the raid goes wrong and Sonya and jaxs fire teams are caught with most killed by our villains (scorpion, reptile, jade, Ermac)

Enter Subzero, or as he is referred to by the Yakuza who hire him to kill Shang tung "zeroika" Which they believe is possible becausr Bi-Han is a Cryomancer assassin. He takes the job because its his last one, Bi-Han is tired of killing, think of him like McCauley in heat, he has entered the stage of his life where killing ain't no way to make a living.

If there's time we can go into kung Lao, who is an Interpol agent pursuing shang.

but this may overlap Sonya's angle. So let's just leave this to a cameo for now who attempts to infiltrate the tournament but gets injured by the hit squad and can't join.

Act 2 -

So the tournament occurs and the fighters soon realize the tournament is fucked. After a few intro fights, we go to a montage... bloodsport style.

After the montage, Raiden does his usual explaining such as:

The tournament occurs every 25-100 years. Changes are the tournament is now 1st to 10. Earrhrealm is a 5 out worlds at 9.

Raiden also mentions that Sonya, Liu or Johnny will determine the outcome of the tournament with subzero and Jax not being accounted for because they ain't suppose to be here.

Now between rounds, subzero attempts to kill shang but scorpion jumps him, epic fight and sub by just barely loses. (Quan Chi cameos and interferes) to which scorpion brutally snaps his neck. Quan Chi then comments he has 2 Spectres now. .quite the collection.

The one on one fights are as follows--

Jax fights a jobber, Mileena and ermac. Ermac violates the rules and blasts his arms off. Sonya intervrnes and kills ermac. shang tsung wants to execute Sonya, Jax and her team but Raiden reminds them ermac violated the rules of the tournament first and offers to let a fighter of his choosing re-enter the tournament (shang agrees and chooses mileena) Jax is Returned to Earth realm by Raiden. Who returns shortly.

Sonya fights Kano and mileena, she kills both, but shang reveals multiple mileena clones and ressurects Kano. (No one know)

Johnny fights Baraka, scorpion and goro.

Liu fights kitana ( who throws the fight) reptile, revenant subzero, jade and Shang.

So the goro fight is Johnny using the environment to use his size against him. Johnny only challenges goro after goro kills Art (brutally) and in this iteration Johnny and art are long time homeboys, art is a sidekick to our group and quite involved with the others (Johnny, Liu, Sonya, Jax and subzero who kinda become the click) so art dying pisses Johnny off and even activates the "anti-god" Ability Johnny has.

Liu is a machine, he kicks the shit out of everyone, his fights would be epic usually.

Shang tsungs match would be the endurance type (facing dead fighters including revenant versions of the great kung Lao and Chan, facing shadow priests and shang himself)

The tournament ends when Liu wins and the 3 surviving bury their friends subzero and art lean (Raiden discovers that Sub zero was long dead when he fought Liu)

Shao Kahn hears of shangs failure from Quan Chi who is assisted by Scorpion (he Is a Spectre...cant really kill him) and Noob Saibot.

Kahn then tells Quan Chi he will lure the earth realmers into out world where they will meet certain death at his hands.

Minus the Grammer (admittedly shit) what other areas would we fix. I am looking for opinions and notes. Remember its just an exercise in fun.

Pages: 1
Download on the App StoreGet it on Google Play
© 1998-2024 Shadow Knight Media, LLC. All rights reserved. Read our Privacy Policy.
Mortal Kombat, the dragon logo and all character names are trademarks and copyright of Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.