‘Mortal Kombat’: Director James Wan To Produce Reboot Of Film Based On Video Game

James Wan may have his hands busy directing Aquaman, but he already has his eyes on another project. He is reportedly in talks to step in as producer for a reboot of Mortal Kombat which will be brought from Warner Bros. New Line Productions. This wouldn’t be a sequel to either of the first two films, but a total reboot.

Wan has been extremely busy with Insidious: Chapter 2, Furious 7, and so much more, but he should be able to breathe some exciting new life into Mortal Kombat. Tracking-Board revealed that Wan appears to be the perfect guy to make the film franchise exciting again.

Not only will Wan bring old-school Mortal Kombat horror and violence to what the studio called “a departure from the mythology” with “darker, brutally real martial arts,” but he will bring in money too.

Don’t forget that James Wan’s Furious 7 brought in a whopping $1.5 billion from the worldwide box office. That is the kind of success that Mortal Kombat may not end up with, but New Line is hoping.

For those not aware, Mortal Kombat is based on the hugely-popular video game series from Midway Games, and it became iconic starting back in the ’90s. The overly-graphic and violent fighting game has grown and grown over the past two decades, and keeps on going to match up with Street Fighter.

A film version was released in 1995, but was met with much criticism even though it has become a bit of a cult classic for some.

In 1997, a sequel followed and was called Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, but it was met with a worse reaction. Even though a number of the same actors from the cast returned, it was just poorly made and fizzled out shortly after.

Two television series were made after the movies. One was an animated series called Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm, and a live-action series titled Mortal Kombat: Konquest.

With Wan coming on to produce, Coming Soon reports that it is believed that the Mortal Kombat film will be out sooner rather than later.

A web-series called Mortal Kombat: Legacy came online a few years ago, and it quickly became incredibly popular. It was directed by choreographer Kevin Tancharoen, but he let it be known that he would not direct the next film.

The early storyline and plot for the reboot of Mortal Kombat is following a male protagonist who gets drawn into an inter-dimensional martial arts tournament. It is then that he starts to realize his true potential in life and must battle evil to survive.

Mortal Kombat‘s screenplay comes from Oren Uziel (Legacy) and Dave Callaham (Godzilla and The Expendables). James Wan coming on board as producer will likely bring forth a good director and perhaps make the film franchise mean something again.

[Image via Midway Games]