At a recent press event, Mortal Kombat reboot producer Todd Garner talked about the issues with finally getting the new film to screens (over seven years, by his account). While the critical and financial failure of the previous film based on the video game franchise – Mortal Kombat: Annihilation – couldn't have helped, it seems that actually a lot of the delay was due to his "five demands", which he wouldn't back down on. You can check them out below:
One was that it has to be R-rated, two, has to be diverse. Three, has to be faithful to the culture of each character. Four, they've got to be martial artists. Five, it would really be good if they were the best martial artists. Not surprisingly, that took me seven years to get this movie made.
I had a lot of demands and it took a minute to get them to catch up with my demands. And so luckily in the meantime, great movies like Crazy Rich Asians got made, Black Panther got made, all these movies that had diverse casts where they went, 'You can make a lot of money with diverse casts.' I'm like, "Wow, imagine that?" Imagine making a movie that just happens to have a diverse cast in it that's a great movie. 'How about that?'
Honestly, it is very encouraging to hear what Garner was fighting for, which all makes a lot of sense to me. I mean, if you're going to do a new Mortal Kombat film, why not make it bloody like the games? Also, fighting for diversity is key, especially since that's something the games (and the first films as well) always were – to its betterment. And it's reassuring to realize that he put great pains to guarantee the fighting was top-notch (which shows even in the small snippets of footage we've seen so far)!
Finally, it makes me really excited for the new film, enough to maybe even forgive them sidelining Liu Kang for some rando named Cole Young (who luckily – with the casting of Lewis Tan – at least isn't white-washing the franchise).
Speaking of Young, here's the official synopsis for the upcoming film:
A washed-up mixed martial arts fighter named Cole Young is unaware of his hidden lineage or why he is being hunted down by Sub-Zero of the Lin-Kuei clan of assassins. Concerned for the safety of his family, he seeks out a clique of fighters that were chosen to defend Earthrealm in a high-stakes battle against the forces of Outworld in a inter-dimensional fighting tournament that occurs once in a generation. Appearances to be made by Shang Tsung, Goro, Jax Briggs, Sonya Blade, Kano, Scorpion and more fan favorites!
Meanwhile, Mortal Kombat – directed by Simon McQuoid and starring Joe Taslim, Lewis Tan, Josh Lawson, Jessica McNamee, and Hiroyuki Sanada – will get over to theaters and HBO Max April 16th!
So what do you guys think? Fans of the games? If so, looking forward to the new movie? Either way, sound off below!