With Mortal Kombat 11 still fresh in players’ minds, comes this news that the wider MK universe is due to expand once again. Variety is reporting that a new Mortal Kombat feature film from New Line will begin pre-production this month is Australia, produced by Aquaman’s James Wan.
There’s relatively little information on this new MK reboot, and it’s unknown whether the films will bear some kind of thematic link to the original pair of Mortal Kombat live action features: 1995’s surprisingly faithful (if cheesy) Mortal Kombat and 1997’s wretchedly under-budgeted and cheap-looking Mortal Kombat: Annihilation. All we know is that the current screenplay comes from Greg Russo, writer of the upcoming Highwaymen, while directorial duties will be handled by first-time feature director Simon McQuoid, who comes out of the world of commercials. Could we be looking at another highly artsy, Tarsem Singh-type emergence here? Regardless, the project was confirmed by South Australian premier Steven Marshall on Tuesday. The film is anticipated to be the largest production in South Australia’s history.
No casting information has even been rumored at yet, but you’ve got to figure that Mortal Kombat casting headlines will be both fascinating and contentious. American audiences have clear-cut ideas on what they want their favorite Kombatants to look and sound like, something that was obvious when viewing internet reactions to Mortal Kombat 11. Let’s just hope that whoever plays Liu Kang can match Robin Shou’s incredible mane of hair, but that will probably be a tall order. And if a remix of the classic “test your might” Mortal Kombat doesn’t show up at some point, we will riot.
We’ll bring you more information on this new Mortal Kombat adaptation as it breaks.