The Tracking Board is reporting that Fast & Furious 7 director James Wan is set to produce a new Mortal Kombat film for New Line Cinema.
Wan, whose Furious 7 grossed over $1.5 billion this summer, will serve as one of the producers on the reboot, working alongside New Line and Broken Road who a readying a brand new film version based on the popular video game series.
There had been word of a new film back 2013 when web series Mortal Kombat: Legacy director Kevin Tancharoen was set to write and direct after his pitch reel Mortal Kombat: Rebirth went viral. But development difficulties meant that the director left the project in 2012.
Mortal Kombat was first released into arcades in 1992 by Midway Games, with the first film arriving in 1995; directed by Paul W.S. Anderson (Event Horizon), which grossed $122 million worldwide. The sequel, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, was released in 1997 and directed by John R. Leonetti (Annabelle), which only grossed $51 million. A TV series, Mortal Kombat: Conquest, also aired in 1998. Plans for a third movie, titled Mortal Kombat: Devastation, never materialised and problems with New Line being folded into Warner Bros, Midway filing for bankruptcy and Threshold suing the video game publisher for the rights over the game’s development meant that the third movie was left in limbo.
Wan is next back in the director’s chair with the sequel to hit horror film The Conjuring: The Enfield Poltergeist, before he takes on directing duties for DC’s Aquaman, released in 2018.
https://youtu.be/8k_v0cVxqEY
Originally published August 8, 2015. Updated April 13, 2018.
