Mortal Kombat Reboot in the Works

Published by Jeff Leins on January 26, 2010

Warner Bros is working on a reboot of the Mortal Kombat franchise, and has hired Oren Uziel to write a new take on the video game property.  Uziel is a new screenwriter in Hollywood, but his Shimmer Lake made the 2009 Black List.

Bloody-Disgusting learned the studio is moving ahead with a remake rather than a third installment that would follow 1997’s Mortal Kombat: Annihilation.  Warner Bros purchased Kombat creator Midway Games in May 2009 after the company filed for bankruptcy, thus absorbing their list of titles.  Maybe this means we’ll also get that NBA Jam movie we’ve all been waiting for.

The original Mortal Kombat from director Paul W.S. Anderson in 1995 was like a combo punch to the brain, but it managed to make $70 million in the U.S. ($122M worldwide). There’s always a silver lining, though.  Christopher Lambert was so bad as Rayden, it still makes me smile when I’m feeling blue.  Try it some time.

Fox recently tried to reboot the Street Fighter franchise and that failed miserably.  As much as I’d love to see a video game movie done right, it’s difficult to turn a fighting game with no story into a full-length feature.  Well, without remaking Bloodsport.  The violence is what made the game popular (and also helped create the Entertainment Software Rating Board), so maybe they’ll stay true to the gruesome fatalities like ripping the spinal cord out of an opponent.  Maybe throw in a character being devoured after a bout.  You know, something for the whole family.

While we’re at it, B-D learned there’s a Japanese, live-action adaptation of the zombie game Dead Rising.  Very cool.