MK: Rebirth Director Finally Gets to Direct Actual Mortal Kombat Movie

[Logan Westbrook]

MK: Rebirth Director Finally Gets to Direct Actual Mortal Kombat Movie

Warner was so impressed by the Mortal Kombat: Legacy director's work, it gave him a whole movie.

Warner Bros. is finally letting director Kevin Tancharoen take the reins on a big screen Mortal Kombat movie. Tancharoen has previously directed two Mortal Kombat projects, the stunning "fan film," Rebirth, and the web series Legacy.

Kevin Tsujihara, the president of Warner home entertainment, said that rather than just making games out of its movies, Warner - the new owner of the Mortal Kombat brand after Midway's collapse - wanted to make its game/movie translations a two way street. New Line Cinema - which produced the first two Mortal Kombat movies - will work on the new movie and studio president Toby Emmerich said that the success of Tancharoen's work on Legacy had inspired Warner to look at rebooting the brand where it hadn't been considering it in previously.

The movie will apparently be a much more realistic take on the Mortal Kombat franchise, which, considering how good Rebirth was, is not a bad thing at all. According to Emmerich and Tsujihara, Warner is hoping to co-ordinate the release of the movie - which is scheduled to come out in 2013 - with that of a new game version.

If Tancharoen is finally getting to make the movie version of Rebirth - which was originally intended to be a film pitch anyway - then it's going to make a lot of people very happy. Of course, for people who don't necessarily spend their time watching fan films on the internet and have only played the games, it might be a little too much of a departure, so I'd be surprised if it's really the radical overhaul that Rebirth seemed to be.

Source: LA Times [http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2011/09/mortal-kombat-movie-coming-as-warner-video-game-and-new-line-units-partner.html]








Permalink

 

[-Samurai-]

Legacy started out great, but it took a weird turn after the first few episodes.

I'm hoping that the movie will stay true to the Rebirth pitch. That thing was amazing. The characterization of Baraka was outstanding, and the storyline was the perfect mix between outlandish and totally believable.

 

[TheDooD]

Hell Legacy should have been a movie from the get go, because the series got weird to down right unwatchable quick.

 

[deth2munkies]

Finally, good to see this. While it's true there were several terrible episodes of Legacy, the thematic direction of both Rebirth and Legacy can only mean good things for the franchise.

Not gonna say it'll be good, but it'll be better than the pile of shit we have now.

 

[William Dickbringer]

If rebirth actually gets made into a movie I can guarantee I will be there opening day

 

[Littaly]

You know what? Putting aside how good the web series was or wasn't, and regardless of what whether or not I like the direction, and regardless of how this will turn out, I'm really happy for Kevin Tancharoen.

I just really like the way he went about pitching his idea, and I think it's cool that it's actually working for him

 

[WanderingFool]

Loved Rebirth, Loved Legacy. And seeing what we had before... yeah, I want this to happen...

 

[ZeppMan217]

Too bad the web series was shit. Not expecting anything from the big version.

 

[Scarim Coral]

While I do love those legacy web series but I'm not too sure about turning it into a feature length film.
Granted the film can easily take place after Legacy but I'm unsure if it can be kept good in such a length (one and a half hour or two hours).

 

[Kiardras]

Loved Rebirth, can't wait to see a film based on that or Legacy. Definately preferred the gritty realism of rebirth however, and it would be awesome to see a more "grounded" film.

 

[BabySinclair]

Rebirth was amazing, Legacy was good except for the crappy animated portions. Actually, the only magic part that I liked was Raiden's madhouse.

 

[Sonicron]

Never watched Legacy, but Rebirth was just awesome. If the new movie takes that kind of gritty, semi-realistic approach, consider me there on opening day.
Nice to see the folks at Warner recognizing talent.

 

[Visulth]

Rebirth was amazing. The only episode of Legacy that really caught my eye was Raiden's. I can't wait for the movie, but I really hope they get Ian Anthony Dale (i.e. Scorpion) from Rebirth into the full length movie.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

The first one wasso bad so good the second one was bad and the rebirth stuff if crap. So I hope they go with the game and make it a crazy powered kung fu flick rather than a dark and depressing real life knock off piece of shit.

 

[Vault Citizen]

I'm not sure about the idea of a full length realistic movie, Mortal Kombat is a series full of sorcerers and demons so I don't see why realism should enter into the equation. I am willing to give the director the willing of the doubt though.

 

[Not-here-anymore]

This has the potential to be awesome or awful. Also the potential to be gritty and realistic or gritty and fantasy-based. Hopefully something of a mix, since the Raiden episode of Legacy was pretty damn good.

 

[plus2exp]

I will remain unexcited about this until more is revealed. Rebirth was all kinds of awesome, but Legacy... was not. Specifically because it wasn't gritty realism like Rebirth promised. Sure, there were a couple good episodes, like the introductions of Johnny Cage and Raiden, but on the whole it was a big let down for me.

 

[Callate]

I actually enjoyed the original "Mortal Kombat" movie. It wasn't great art, but it had a lot of visual style, moved briskly, paid the appropriate amount of tribute to the fans of the game, and didn't generally beat the audience over the head with too much out-and-out stupidity.

Then the second one replaced Raiden and acted like no one should notice, tried to squeeze in shout-outs to every single character, and tried to keep a straight face as people talked about "animalities".

I think we could see an MK movie worth seeing if the powers that be can keep their stupid meddling fingers to themselves and let the people who care about the property but more importantly know movies do their thing.