Mortal Kombat was best known not just for its movies but also for its video games. The popular franchise died down after the 1997 sequel, Mortal Kombat: but a reboot has now been planned. Screenwriter Oren Uziel has revealed some details about the script that he wrote which is said to be an R-rated, violent version of The Avengers.
During an interview recently, he was asked about his take on Mortal Kombat, which he wrote several years ago, and without revealing too much gave us an insight on what to expect, should it ever go into production. Here’s what he had to say:
“Well, and again I don’t know what remains of this, but I know that it was going to be, it’s almost like if you took The Avengers, or if you took a storyline like that and set it in a sort of hard-R, over-the-top violence and the hard-edged world of Mortal Kombat. It was a little bit like that, it was a little bit like a Wanted-type story that brought together a bunch of these characters and just pulled zero punches, and had a tone that was still fun but very dark.”
Dave Callaham cowrote the draft for Mortal Kombat, and James Wan is producing it. Oren Uziel explained his long history with the reboot, which was his first job in Hollywood. He says:
“I have a long history with that Mortal Kombat project. It was kind of the first thing I got hired on. After Shimmer Lake went out around town I took a lot of meetings and one of the first job’s I got, and then ended up not getting, was to write Mortal Kombat for Warner Bros., But the guy who hired me exited the company before we even completed the paperwork. So it was like a job that existed and then disappeared, it was soul-crushing. But Kevin Tancharoen, who I guess was also trying to direct that movie before it went away, he called me and said, ‘Hey, would you be willing to write a short that I would shoot because I think there’s something here, I think we can convince Warner Bros. to do it. I ended up writing a short for him that he shot and it became kind of a big thing, and I know he used that to convince Machinima to make the digital series which I didn’t have anything to do with, and then after a couple years of that New Line came onboard to actually make a feature version again. And it was at that point that Kevin called, and New Line called and said, ‘Hey, you were there at the beginning, do you wanna come back?’ I said, ‘Sure,’ so I wrote them a feature that has been the basis of what the Mortal Kombat movie will be, but it’s been kicking around for a little while now. I know James Wan came on to produce so that to me was a good sign that maybe things were heating up again, but beyond that, I don’t know the specifics.”
Simon McQuoid is expected to direct the new Mortal Kombat film. Christopher Lambert who acted in the original Mortal Kombat is also in talks to play a role in the reboot. He said it would be more of a sequel with time travel involved. As of now, there is no release date yet, but more details are expected to emerge shortly.