Given the recent success Mortal Kombat has enjoyed in the video game space (see: XL and the impending MK11), you may be wondering why the film adaptation is taking so long to get off the ground.
Last we reported, Aquaman director James Wan was circling the long-gestating project, though later admitted that Mortal Kombat is a difficult nut to crack – just look at the bang average MK movie from 1995, which was decidedly lacking in blood and gore.
And so, the mooted project was sent back to the drawing board. Hopes were dashed, Wan’s involvement in the film began to wane, and suddenly, it looked like Mortal Kombat 2.0 would never see the warm light of day. And though that may well be the case when all is said and done, series creator Ed Boon offered a sliver of hope to Game Informer: a script still exists.
In fact, Boon was last involved in a “serious meeting” about the Mortal Kombat movie “about five months ago,” though warned that “in the right hands, I feel excited. In the wrong hands, I want it to get killed.”
Turns out James Wan has a similar outlook when it comes to Mortal Kombat, given the filmmaker previously stressed that he will only commit to the project if he’s given the right resources – cast, budget, producers… you name it. Wan has been the driving force of The Conjuring film universe, so it’s fair to say he knows a thing or two about capturing lightning in a bottle. Remember Saw?
“People don’t know this, fans don’t understand this, but there’s just so much on the business side of things… to try and get the right budget for it, and we want to make sure we have enough resources and the budget to do the film right. If I can’t get the right resources and find the right filmmaker for it, I don’t want to do it, and I’m so busy already. I don’t need to clutter my plate with more stuff if I don’t believe it can be done right.”
Closer to home, Mortal Kombat 11 will unleash fire and fury upon PS4, Xbox One and PC on April 23rd.
