Mortal Kombat ($84 Million Worldwide Box Office)

Furious 7 director James Wan is stepping in to produce the MORTAL KOMBAT reboot currently underway at New Line and Broken Road.

The in-demand director of The Conjuring and Insidious: Chapter 2 has been brought over to uppercut some new life into the previously stunted picture. With his dark sensibility, ability to orchestrate action and scares, and a wildly successful financial track record, Wan seems to be the perfect fit for what the studio has described as “a departure from the mythology,” with “darker, brutally real martial arts.”

The script, being penned by Mortal Kombat: Legacy writer Oren Uziel and The Expendables writer Dave Callaham, centers around a seemingly harmless guy who realizes his potential when he finds himself caught in the middle of a cross-dimensional battle between the warriors of Earth and the monsters of Outworld. Now, in order to stop the world from total destruction, he must win the martial arts tournament known as ‘Mortal Kombat’.

The film is based on the iconic video game series from Midway Games, which gained notoriety in the early 1990s for its depiction of graphically violent hand-to-hand combat. Since its release, the franchise has sold over 35 million units–more than enough to warrant a reboot of the film series, which stalled out with 1997’s Mortal Kombat: Annihilation. With the white-hot Wan on board, the right buttons may have just been pressed to put the finishing moves on this project.

UltimateMarvel wrote: it better be the BEST MK movie with sequels to match the Fast and Furious franchise.

WyldeMan wrote:

UltimateMarvel wrote: it better be the BEST MK movie with sequels to match the Fast and Furious franchise.

God damn it Abe....

WyldeMan wrote:I couldn't even watch more than half of Furious Seven I just hated it so god damned much. Kevin Tancharoen should be making this, not Wan who hasn't made a good movie since Death Sentence.

Fight! New Line's Mortal Kombat movie has found its Sub-Zero.

Actor and martial artist Joe Taslim will be playing the superpowered fighter in the live-action adaptation of the video game.

James Wan and his Atomic Monster banner are producing the movie, which will be the feature debut of veteran commercial director Simon McQuoid. Todd Garner will also produce, with Larry Kasanoff, E. Bennett Walsh, Michael Clear and Sean Robins executive producing.

While the plot of the movie remains unknown, the video game centers on a massive roster of character fighters from different realms in a fictional universe battling for supremacy. Greg Russo penned the current version of the screenplay.

First released in 1992, Mortal Kombat has sold over 49 million copies, spanning over a dozen canon games and expansions, making it one of the most profitable video game franchise of all time. Mortal Kombat 11 was released in April and has become the most successful launch in franchise history.

The game was previously adapted into a movie in 1995 from director Paul W. S. Anderson that went on to gross an impressive $122 million at the worldwide box office. It was then followed by 1997's Mortal Kombat: Annihilation.

Sub-Zero was one of the original characters featured in the 1992 game and is known for his attacks involving ice. He has a long-running rivalry with similarly garbed fellow kombatant Scorpion.

Taslim's is the first deal to close for Mortal Kombat, which is set to shoot in southern Australia later this year.

An alum of Indonesia's national Judo team, Taslim made his acting debut in cult action film The Raid. His other feature credits include Fast & Furious 6, Star Trek Beyond and recent Netflix feature The Night Comes for Us.

Major Jackson "Jax" Briggs (Supergirl's Mehcad Brooks), a special forces major who bears the same mark as Cole, urges him to seek out Sonya Blade (The Meg's Jessica McNamee). She ferries him onward to the next leg of the journey, to the thunderous Elder God known as Lord Raiden (Thor's Tadanobu Asano), who grants sanctuary at his temple to all those with the mark. There, Cole encounters even more recognizable characters from the Mortal Kombat games — Liu Kang (Power Rangers' Ludi Lin), Kung Lao (actor and stuntman Max Huang), and Kano (Superstore's Josh Lawson) — as they all train for a high-stakes tournament to defeat the invading enemies from Outerworld.

UltimateMarvel wrote:Amazing trailer! All the boxes were checked.

Rusty wrote:Cole could be Cage. Maybe he's living under an assumed name, or doesn't know his real name?

Or maybe they're saving him for the sequel.

EXCLUSIVE: The viewership for New Line’s red band trailer of Mortal Kombat has clocked 116M views in its first week, becoming the biggest red band trailer of all-time, besting the 4-day mark of Logan and Deadpool 2 and continuing to do so.

The trailer for the Simon McQuoid directed feature trended in 52 total markets on YouTube and 28 total markets on Twitter, registering a 98% Positive-to-Neutral social sentiment rating.

Separately, RelishMix tells us that the viral reposting rate for Mortal Kombat is a very high 47:1 ratio.

The trailer received high praise from fans across Reddit and video gaming news sites such as GameSpot and NintendoWire, some who’ve been quite skeptical about video game adaptations. GameSpot beamed, “It’s loaded with the kind of blood, gore, and crazy superhuman abilities fans of the video game series have come to expect… It’s also packed with a bunch of iconic characters from the franchise, giving them each time to shine (and mutilate their opponents)… Our first look at Jax’s cybernetic arms is pretty impressive.”

This latest iteration of Mortal Kombat debuts in theaters and on HBO Max on April 16.

Back in 2017, the first trailer for New Line’s It smashed then global 24-hour traffic records with 197M views, blowing past the previous record set by Universal’s The Fate of the Furious (139M).

It's gonna be a little longer before we can see the new Mortal Kombat movie. The highly-anticipated release has just been delayed by a week by Warner Bros., now set to premiere on April 23 instead of the planned release date of April 16. At this time, no reason has yet been given for the delay.

Mortal Kombat has seen multiple "official" release dates over the course of its development. At one point, the movie was set to be released on March 5, and fans were later treated to the good news that it had been pushed up to January 15, 2021. Of course, the pandemic changed those plans, and Mortal Kombat was later dated for April 16.

UltimateMarvel wrote:Annihilation is all that matters. I never hear anyone mention the '95 movie and it was quite forgettable.

WyldeMan wrote:What? I've only ever heard people talk about loving the original and hating Annihilation.

Tyger wrote:I mean they’re both garbage, but the first is more focused from what I remember

UltimateMarvel wrote:I'm not going to watch these since it's so close to release.

joey con carne wrote:Every day  I walk down the stairs to my basement for work, I walk like Sub-Zero. Makes me feel like a badass before I log in.

WyldeMan wrote:I enjoyed this latest Mortal Kombat iteration for what it was but it still had some problems.

It definitely could have used more Scorpion but they had a story to tell and clearly didn't want to rush things just for the sake of getting them into the first movie.

It was a fresh start to an decades old abused franchise and one that is bursting with the potential for many more sequels, prequels and spin-offs.

But no mid or even post-credits sequence? Lame! Though that final Cole Young gym scene basically served as one anyways.

I'm sure the internets will take issue with everything and there won't be enough fights or fatalities but as a new starting point, it worked for me.

UltimateMarvel wrote:I agree, watched it last night and it was a good start to a potential franchise. Loved all the gore and fatalities but with that comes losing certain characters like Kung Lao.

I wish they played that MK soundtrack a little longer during the final fight, you just can't beat it.

I also waited for an after credit scene but nope.

WyldeMan wrote:I was bummed to see Kano go because Josh Lawson made him a lot of fun but I knew it was the only way Sonya could earn her mark so I was okay with it. However, now I want a six episode prequel series that covers his time leading the Black Dragons.

WyldeMan wrote:But there were certain character I always think of when it comes to MK and others that I always seem to forget exist and Kung Lao was always on my forgotten list. When he showed up I was like "Oh yeah that the dude that throws his hat" LOL.

WyldeMan wrote:This Raiden took a little getting used to. I know he was never really a white guy but Christopher Lambert and Ryan Robbins are the only dudes I've ever seen play the role in live action until now. Though it was a nice and highly appropriate change of pace.

WyldeMan wrote:Were you at all confused by Cole's relationship to the women in his life? I did not get that Allison and Emily were his wife and daughter until Goro attacked and Emily called him "Dad". I assumed they were his sister and his girlfriend until that point because no relationship info was given before the attack.

WyldeMan wrote:Did you hear the original song play throughout the end credits?

joey con carne wrote:I watched this today. Pretty good stuff. I like when Kano called Kung Lao “Kung Pao” and he unlocked his arcana screaming about an eggroll.

I was a little disappointed Hanzo Hasashi fell so easily to Sub-Zero one-on-one.

UltimateMarvel wrote:I didn't realize it was Josh Lawson until right before Liu showed up, had to IMDB to double check. But yeah, he's a funny character. She stabbed him in the eye so there is a good chance he's still alive and comes back with the metal eye like in the games.

UltimateMarvel wrote:Agree. I remember James Remar more than the 2 you mentioned.

UltimateMarvel wrote:Were you disappointed Sub-Zero didn't walk down the stairs?

joey con carne wrote:How did Sub-Zero become immortal? Is that the doing of Shang Tsung?