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..