Objectively speaking, the original Mortal Kombat movie - the one with Christopher Lambert as Raiden - were awful.
For one, you had a French-Canadian guy playing the God of Thunder. James Remar replaced him in the sequel, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation - not that he was any better. You also had horrible mid-'90s techno music and just the cheesiest of cheesy dialogue running through the whole thing and, of course, Goro looked like he was made out of paper mache.
Simply put, it was awful and it never really matched the potential of the game. However, since Midway Games went into bankruptcy, Mortal Kombat has come under the control of Warner Bros., who've set their mind on making another Mortal Kombat film a reality.
In fact, they've both one of their most talented directors - James Wan - on the case to get it going. In a recent interview with iGN, Wan explained that he grew up with the games as a child and that "the key here is to try and do it right. I don’t want to rush into it."
"So right now, we’re just trying to take our time to make sure it’s heading in the right direction. I think that’s more important than trying to rush through it and pump up something that no one likes."
Wan does have a huge amount of work on his plate, not to mention the upcoming Aquaman film with Jason Momoa, he's the executive producer and pilot director on the MacGyver TV reboot and he's got at least three horror franchises - The Conjuring, Saw and the spinoffs from The Conjuring - to worry about as well.
Undoubtedly, Mortal Kombat is now becoming a priority for Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema, especially as Fox are dipping their toe in the water with Assassin's Creed. Granted, Warcraft didn't light up the box-office as intended, there's still a decent chance of a sequel being made.
It's still in the pre-production stages, but a more grounded, realistic take on Mortal Kombat - with a strong director - could definitely be interesting. Who would work for what role? Start your dream-casting in the comments!
Via IGN
