After Director Kevin Tancharoen dropped out in heading a new live action "Mortal Kombat" movie in 2013, efforts in bringing the film back to the big screen lost its steam. However, the long wait might finally be over as new reports surfaced that widely renowned director, James Wan, has been hired to produce the video game-inspired flick, The Tracking Board has learned.
According to the report, the highly sought after "Furious 7," "The Conjuring" and "Insidious: Chapter 2" director has been tapped as the producer of the film, which is currently in the works at New Line Cinema and Broken Road Productions.
The film, described as "a departure from mythology" combined with "darker, brutally real martial arts," is deemed to be a perfect film to be put under Wan's tutelage, given his ability to excellently depict darkness, horror and action. Not to mention that the films he directed has achieved financial success.
The Tracking Board furthered that the movie, currently being written by "Mortal Kombat: Legacy" writer, Oren Uziel, and "The Expendables" writer, Dave Callaham, will revolve around a "seemingly harmless" character, who recognizes and unleashes his abilities after he finds himself in the "middle of a cross-dimensional battle between the warriors of Earth and the monsters of Outworld." The only path he can take to save the world from total anarchy is to win the martial arts tournament known as "Mortal Kombat."
Founded on the iconic 1990s Midway Games video game series that sold more than 35 million units worldwide, "Mortal Kombat" gained popularity for its graphically violent hand-to-hand combat gameplay.
Screen Rant reported that this popularity led to a 1995 Paul W.S Anderson film adaptation that raked in a decent 122 million worldwide and placed it as the fourth highest grossing video game movie ever released. However, the 1997 film, "Mortal Kombat: Annihilation," was globally slammed and was not able to yield even half the amount its predecessor made.
The "Mortal Kombat" franchise was given life when Tancharoen directed the short film, "Mortal Kombat: Rebirth," which paved the way for the "Mortal Kombat" legacy that became a hit web series. New Line Cinema then began the development for a big-screen adaptation, but all was left in vain when Tanchaoren announced that he will not be directing the film.
With the addition of Wan, there are a lot of hopes that he will work his magic on the project to make the film move forward.