New Line Cinema’sMortal Kombathas been given a new lease on life, with the studio bringing aboard filmmakerJames Wanto produce. The filmmaker is coming off of the massive Universal blockbusterFurious 7, which has taken in over $1.5 billion at thebox office.The Tracking Board’s report doesn’t mention if the filmmaker will direct, but that seems unlikely, since he has a number of projects on his directorial plate, such asThe Conjuring: The Enfield PoltergeistandAquaman.
The script is being written byOren Uziel(22 Jump Street) andDave Callaham(Godzilla).Oren Uzielwrote directorKevin Tancharoen’s short filmMortal Kombat: Rebirth, which served as a launching pad for theMortal Kombat: Legacyweb series that ran for two seasons.Kevin Tancharoenwas actually attached to direct thismovie rebootbefore he eventually dropped out back in October 2013. We haven’t heard anything about the project since then, but now it seems to be back on the right track.
This newMortal Kombatreboot follows “a seemingly harmless guy” who finds himself in the midst of an inter-dimensional battle between Earth-bound warriors and creatures from Outworld. He is tasked with winning theMortal Kombattournament to save the Earth from total destruction. It isn’t known if this “seemingly harmless guy” is one of the characters from the long-runningvideo gameseries, or a role created specifically for this reboot. The game series was launched by Midway Games in 1992, which has sold more than 35 million copies worldwide. The latest version of the game,Mortal Kombat X, was released back in April.
New Line released the originalMortal Kombatmovie back in 1995, which took in over $120 million worldwide. The adaptation starredChristopher Lambert,Robin Shou, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Bridgette Wilson and Talisa Soto. The movie spawned a 1997 sequel,Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, which didn’t fare quite as well as its predecessor, earning just $71 million worldwide.
It isn’t known when New Line would like to get production started onMortal Kombat, or if the studio has a release date targeted quite yet.James Wanhas plenty of experience with creating franchises, making his directorial debut in 2004 with the firstSaw, which spawned a massive horror franchise. He is also returning to executive produce the recently-announcedSaw VIIIthat Lionsgate is developing. His moviesInsidiousandThe Conjuringwere also turned into franchises. Do you think thatJames Wanwill help steerMortal Kombatin the right direction?
