The bloodhounds over at B-D have just dropped dime that Warner Brothers is not only aggressively pursuing a MORTAL KOMBAT rehash, their looking to do so with writer Oren Uziel. Wait, Oren who?
While Uziel is hardly a household name at this point in his career, a script he wrote entitled SHIMMER LAKE was lauded enough to make the 2009 Black List. That’s to say, his script was one of the very best in Hollywood NOT to be produced last year (for whatever reason).
Well, that’s a good starting point I suppose. We all know video-game flicks aren’t the first to attract A-list talent, be it above or below the line (just ask some dude named Uwe). The first MORTAL KOMBAT picture, directed by Paul W.S. Anderson in 1995, certainly met its fair share of hang-ups. And for a flick called MORTAL KOMBAT, being rated PG-13 was sorta like the title of Kevin Smith’s new flick. Dig what I’m sayin’?!?
Based on Midway’s popular 1992 video game, the franchise follows the best fighters from around the globe who are summoned to an island to compete in a tournament whose outcome will determine the fate of the entire planet.
Word is the character Johnny Cage was modeled after Jean Claude Van Damme. If Warner Bros. can score him in a lead role like he did in STREET FIGHTER, a hard R version of MORTAL KOMBAT would be the absolute tits!
More as it develops.
By the way, who’s your favorite Mortal Kombat character? I’m a Rayden/Sub-Zero man myself!
Talisa Soto played Princess Kitana in the 1995 MORTAL KOMBAT movie!