Filmmaker James Wan, whose The Conjuring 2 was a major hit in theaters earlier this summer, has given IGN an update on the status of New Line Cinema and Broken Road’s Mortal Kombat movie, which he is producing.
“It’s still cooking away,” Wan stated. “With that particular project, that’s a really cool property that I loved growing up as a kid. Besides the game, even the movies as well, I kind of enjoyed them for what they are. The key here is to try and do it right. I don’t want to rush into it. So right now, we’re just trying to take our time to make sure it’s heading in the right direction. I think that’s more important than trying to rush through it and pump up something that no one likes. I love the characters. I think they’re such colorful characters. It’s such an amazing take on, basically, ‘Enter the Dragon.’ It’s that fantasy version, the video game version, of ‘Enter the Dragon.’ And in doing so, they ended up creating such interesting characters and I think that is such a cool world to explore. This really mythical, bigger world that lives on another dimension on top of ours. I think that’s really fun to play with and so we’ll see.”
While the project was initially to be helmed by choreographer-turned-director Kevin Tancharoen of the popular web series “Mortal Kombat: Legacy,” Tancharoen announced himself that he would not helm the Mortal Kombat movie back in 2013. No director is currently attached.
The first Mortal Kombat video game was developed by Midway Games and released in 1992. The storyline sees a diverse range of fighters hailing from eighteen different realms become pitted against one another in an epic tournament. Quite a few sequels followed the original game with the most recent, Mortal Kombat X, being released last year.
In addition to the web series, two Mortal Kombat movies have already been released. The first, simply titled Mortal Kombat, was directed by Paul W.S. Anderson and saw release in 1995. It was followed two years later with a sequel, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, which also paved the way for two television series: the animated “Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm” and the live-action “Mortal Kombat: Konquest.”
The new Mortal Kombat movie will follow a male protagonist who becomes drawn into the interdimensional tournament, and who begins to realize his true potential as a result of the experience. The screenplay hails from “Legacy” scribe Oren Uziel and well as The Expendables and Godzilla‘s Dave Callaham.
Wan will next direct Warner Bros.’ Aquaman movie, starring Jason Momoa and opening in theaters on July 27, 2018.
