Several websites, including Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter reported the news: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.
Update 01Uziel 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.
Warner Bros Entertainment tweeted officially about the next Mortal Kombat movie:
New article from LA Times gives us even more details:WarnerBrosEnt: Yes, #MortalKombat fans, it's true. A movie is in the works: //lat.ms/pr5Es1 (via @latimes) #MK
Stay Klose to Mortal Kombat Secrets as we bring you the latest news on the Mortal Kombat Universe.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.
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