Ever since Warner Bros. purchased Midway Games in 2008 there’s been speculation they may attempt to reboot Mortal Kombat on the big screen at some point. Those rumours intensified last year when a video called Mortal Kombat: Rebirth surfaced on Youtube that turned out to be director Kevin Tancharoen’s attempt to sell the studio on a realistic take on the videogame camera.
While that short spawned a web series, it’s only now that Warner has decided they would indeed like a big screen version, and have hired Tancharoen to direct it, according to THR. The web series, Mortal Kombat: Legacy, has had over 15 million viewers, and it seems it’s that which has convinced Warner there’s an audience for big screen Mortal Kombat.
Oren Uziel will write the screenplay. Although no actors have officially signed on as of yet, the Mortal Kombat short and web series featured actors such as Michael Jai White, Jeri Ryan, Ian Anthony Dale, and Darren Shahlavi. However the movie won’t directly lead on from the web series, so it’s likely at least some of those actors won’t make the transition to the big screen.
It’s certainly something different for Tancharoen, who’s a choreographer best known for directing Fame and Glee: The 3D Concert Movie. Let us just pray he can do better than the 1995 Mortal Kombat and its sequel.