Mortal Kombat: The New Movie - News

One of the problems with the earlier films was that they were PG-13. For a video game series notorious for its creative violence (and for irritating Sen. Joe Lieberman), that’s essentially the equivalent of the lame grey sweat they subbed into the SNES version. They don’t plan for that to be the case here. “Up to this point, we’ve only been talking ‘rated R,’” says Tancharoen. “I like realistic takes on things, I like it when it’s a little darker and grittier. And I want the martial arts to feel real as opposed to balletic and super-choreographed. It needs to feel brutal, because that’s the nature of the video game itself.” New Line is aiming on having the film hit theaters in 2013, and we’ll see then whether it’s a flawless victory or a fatality.

It has begun!!!! ... A Mortal Kombat movie is Koming...you in?

The movie deal marks the end of a journey for Kevin Tancharoen, who will direct the new film. Tancharoen, a choreographer for Madonna and Britney Spears who directed the 2009 remake of Fame and more recently the Glee concert movie, directed a short film Mortal Kombat: Rebirth as a proof of concept for a Kombat movie he tried to pitch. A huge fan of the video game (and knowing Hollywood wouldn’t give him a shot at the title), he enlisted Oren Uziel to write the short and hired actors such as Michael Jai White and Jeri Ryan.

Uziel wrote and Tancharoen directed the eight-minute short film Mortal Kombat: Rebirth, which starred Michael Jai White as Jax, Jeri Ryan as Sonya Blade, Matt Mullins as Johnny Cage, Ian Anthony Dale as Scorpion and Lateef Crowder as Baraka. Tancharoen did this with the idea that he could prove himself to Warner Bros as an action director and reboot the movie franchise. Initially, Warner Games, which put out a video game reboot in April 2011, wasn’t amused and sought to shut down the project. But Tancharoen’s effort created enough of a demand when it leaked online that the studio’s digital division, Warner Premiere, made a deal with him to generate a 10-episode Web series. Those episodes began airing on YouTube in April 2011.

WarnerBrosEnt: Yes, #MortalKombat fans, it's true. A movie is in the works: //lat.ms/pr5Es1 (via @latimes) #MK

Warner Bros.' New Line Cinema label is partnering with the Burbank studio’s video game unit Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment to adapt for the big screen the tournament fighting series, which debuted on video game consoles in 1992. New Line is aiming to produce the new film next year and release it in 2013.
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"It's really important that we show we can bring our game properties to movies instead of just the other way around," said Warner home entertainment President Kevin Tsujihara.
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Tancharoen has now been tapped to direct the feature film, which is being written by his partner Oren Uziel. New Line president Toby Emmerich said the idea to do the movie came entirely from the work the director did online.

"The new game and the online shorts prompted us to consider a reboot of a brand we hadn’t been actively thinking about," he said.
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Tancharoen said his new movie, which is expected to be produced for well under $100 million, will offer a more realistic take on the Mortal Kombat characters, who are best known for over-the-top killing moves called "fatalities."

Because the Mortal Kombat games and movies are now being made under the same studio roof, the film’s release is expected to be coordinated with the next game. Emmerich and Tusjihara both said they hope the next Mortal Kombat game will come out when the movie hits theaters, or potentially in a single package along with the DVD and Blu-ray.

Development of a “Mortal Kombat” movie had been held up by litigation between Warner and producer Lawrence Kasanoff, who worked on the two 1990s movies. The studio prevailed in one lawsuit over royalties owed for the years 2000-2004, but cases are pending over royalties for 2008 and ownership of the movie rights.

While Tsujihara declined to comment on the litigation, people close to the movie but not authorized to discuss the matter publicly said they believed the two sides were close enough to a resolution to move ahead on the project. Kasanoff and his attorney did not return calls requesting comment.

“We are very pleased that the court dismissed Threshold’s multi-million dollar claims," Warner Bros. tells THR in a statement. "This victory fully vindicates Warner’s position that it accounted to Threshold fairly, appropriately and according to the parties’ contract."

"Threshold will be appealing the ruling and the denial of a jury trial," says Kasanoff attorney Howard Miller of Girardi and Keese.

This week's ruling only covers an audit period of 2000-2004. Kasanoff filed a separate lawsuit over Kombat for the 2004-2008 period. That case is still pending but the first three years of the period were thrown out based on the statute of limitations. A third case filed by Kasanoff in bankruptcy court in 2009 targeted the sale of Midway Games to Warner Bros and its impact on his intellectual property rights in certain characters associated with the Kombat franchise. That case is still pending.

“I am not the most technically savvy YouTube person,” Tancharoen tells Gamasutra in an interview. “What came out wasn’t the final product in my mind. I wasn’t done yet."

"It was still in its rough phase, but I couldn’t send a 2GB file over email, so my friend said I could create a private page on YouTube and sent it to him to review. It turns out it wasn’t that private.”
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When he realized it was his film, his fears doubled: certain rights hadn’t been secured – including with his cast. “The actors could have quickly rebelled against me,” he says. “Thank God people liked it, because it could have gone really bad.”

Instead of rebelling, the cast rallied. White, Ryan, Ian Anthony Dale and the rest of the actors featured in the video are currently in negotiations to star in the digital shorts.

Tancharoen says there will be nine episodes in the MK live action series. Each will run for 7-10 minutes – and will explore the history of the characters in the game. (Some of the big characters, like Scorpion and Sub Zero might have their stories split into two parts.)

41:40 [Michael Jai White]: ... We are going to do some short films, right before with do the major film...