Furious 7 Director James Wan Joins The Mortal Kombat Reboot
By Dirk Libbey

It looks like there’s no fatality that can keep the Mortal Kombat film franchise down. While there have been attempts to get the movies going again we haven’t seen anything on the big screen since 1997. Now however, there’s a big name involved in rebooting the movies who has earned himself a lot of Hollywood credibility recently. Furious 7 director James Wan is on board to produce the new film.

The Tracking Board has the details that Wan, who directed the fifth highest grossing movie of all time, should be able to bring some new life to the perpetually stalled project. The movie is being written by David Callaham (The Expendables) and Oren Uziel, who wrote the short film Mortal Kombat: Rebirth which spawned the well-received web series Mortal Kombat: Legacy.

The film will be a standalone reboot not connected to the previous films or the web series. Interestingly, it also doesn’t look to hold a great deal of connection to the game series, being called a "departure from the mythology." Hopefully it won’t be a major departure from the mythology if they expect to bring in the serious fans. They are promising brutal martial arts action, so they are keeping the most important part.

The first Mortal Kombat game was released in 1992 and each one focuses on a martial arts tournament made up of people as well as creatures from other realms. The first Mortal Kombat movie was released in 1995 and a follow-up, subtitled Annihilation followed two years later. There had been plans for a third movie but those eventually died off. The game series has continued on nearly uninterrupted, even after the bankruptcy of the original developer. The most recent game in the series, Mortal Kombat X has been receiving generally positive reviews, which likely has also helped build interest in reviving the films.

In addition to his recent work on Furious 7 Wan has also worked on films like The Conjuring and the Insidious series, so he has an eye for darkness as well as action. Those two elements should work well together in a potential Mortal Kombat movie. While it would be great to have Wan direct the movie himself, the next best option is to have Wan be the guy who picks the director.

While we’re not holding our breath to see anything come from this soon, James Wan is one of Hollywood’s "it" people right now, so he has the ability to make wheels turn just by standing near them. If he can't make this movie happen it's hard to think of what could. Are you excited to see a new Mortal Kombat movie in the works?

NOVEMBER 18, 2016 5:47pm PT by Aaron Couch
'Mortal Kombat' Reboot Finds Its Director

Mortal Kombat is ready for a new round.

Simon McQuoid is in talks to direct the big-screen reboot of the videogame franchise, Heat Vision has confirmed.

James Wan is producing the reboot for New Line, the studio behind both the 1995 film that became a surprise hit and its less-than-stellar 1997 follow-up, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation. Larry Kasanoff, who produced the original films and helped extend the Mortal Kombat brand to new heights, is executive producing.

McQuoid comes from the world of commercials and helmed a well-liked Star Wars spot for Duracell last year and also is known for work with brands such as Nissan, Samsung and HP.

The 1995 Mortal Kombat movie is still remembered as breaking the "videogame curse," being the first adaptation to be embraced by fans and become a hit at the box office. It told the story of Liu Kang (Robin Shou), Johnny Cage (Linden Ashby) and Sonya Blade (Bridgette Wilson-Sampras), who fought for the fate of humanity in a life-or-death tournament.

Director Paul W.S. Anderson would go on to find success with the Resident Evil series, but at the time was an unknown filmmaker. Mortal Kombat reigned at No. 1 for three weekends in a row at the U.S. box office and grossed $122 million worldwide.

"Robin would rate the fights," Anderson told Heat Vision last year about the brutal stunts his star put himself through. "They would be a one, a two or a three. That would refer to how many ribs he bruised when he did the fight."
For more on the original Mortal Kombat, read our oral history, which chronicles all the broken bones and screaming executives the cast and crew weathered to make the hit.

McQuoid is repped by WME.

The Mortal Kombat reboot not only hopes to begin shooting in Australia this summer, but also add an Aussie actor.
It’s been over 20 years since a Mortal Kombat film has hit theaters. But the long wait for another live-action adaptation of this immensely popular video game could soon be over as New Line prepares to tell it’s fans to “get over here” once again — a comeback after Paul Anderson’s Mortal Kombat in 1995 and it’s 1997 sequel, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation.

The Mortal Kombat reboot, which has been spearheaded by producer James Wan and his Atomic Monster production company, looks to not only introduce a new character into the franchise but will also bring back some franchise favorites. With Simon Mcquoid locked in direct and a completed script by Greg Russo, the movie’s production is closer than it’s ever been before.

Warner Bros.’ New Line Cinema division has been trying to reboot the Mortal Kombat movie franchise for some time. At one point, Mortal Kombat: Legacy director Kevin Tancharoen was attached to the project but dropped out in 2013. In 2015, New Line brought in director James Wan (Saw, Insidious) to produce the reboot, with writers Dave Callaham (Doom, The Expendables) and Oren Uziel (Mortal Kombat: Legacy, 22 Jump Street) attached to write.

Then in 2016 James Wan brought on popular commercial Director Simon Mcquoid to helm the reboot. The Australian filmmaker was one of the most in-demand commercials directors in the business, working on high-profile campaigns for PlayStation, Halo, Range Rover, Beats by Dre, and other top brands.

Although the Mortal Kombat reboot is in final stages before being fully green-lit, it apparently has it’s eyes on an actor that can help bring Outworld back to the big screen.