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UPFRONTS 2013: The Overachievers 
New Line Cinema is bringing back Mortal Kombat, setting up a live-action reboot of the martial arts-heavy franchise that will be written by Oren Uziel and directed by Kevin Tancharoen. The director wouldn’t be the first guy one would think of for a chopsocky action film given a resume that includes Fame and, most recently, Glee: The Documentary, the 3D concert movie that didn’t do much business this summer. But both of those guys have earned the work, since it was their unauthorized viral short that breathed life into a dormant franchise.
Uziel wrote and Tancharoen directed the eight-minute short film Mortal Kombat: Rebirth, which starred Michael Jai White as Jax, Jeri Ryan as Sonya Blade, Matt Mullins as Johnny Cage, Ian Anthony Dale as Scorpion and Lateef Crowder as Baraka. Tancharoen did this with the idea that he could prove himself to Warner Bros as an action director and reboot the movie franchise. Initially, Warner Games, which put out a video game reboot in April 2011, wasn’t amused and sought to shut down the project. But Tancharoen’s effort created enough of a demand when it leaked online that the studio’s digital division, Warner Premiere, made a deal with him to generate a 10-episode Web series. Those episodes began airing on YouTube in April 2011.
New Line then went to Tancharoen and Uziel and put together the movie. Mortal Kombat premiered in 1995, and the original film grossed $122 million worldwide. Interest waned with the 1997 sequel Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, which grossed only $51.3 million worldwide. The studio is keeping the plot under wraps. Uziel wrote The Kitchen Sink, a mashup of vampires, zombies and aliens that made the Black List and sold to Sony Pictures and producer Matt Tolmach.
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Excellent! Loved the Mortal Kombat Legacy series!
Man, happy for these guys. I remember hearing about these guys taking their own money and shooting this without permission. Too many people in this business, especially young filmmakers, suffer from an overblown sense of entitlement. But these guys went out and put their money where their mouths are and came out on top. It’s inspiring
Well, guess I’m skipping this. Both Rebirth and Legacy were awful (though to be fair, for different reasons).
Tancharoen’s fine as director, but both of his MK endeavors have completely failed to capture the tone of the games. Even Paul Anderson managed that.
I liked the trailer for REBIRTH above anything from LEGACY, though I agree, neither captured the tone of the games or did any of the characters justice (maybe minus Scorpion). Personally, I would just use the original ’95 film as a blue print and have less characters and more depth and mythology.
uh no the webseries put the 2 live movies to shame, you must be an alien cuz your the only one that doesnt know that next to the other billions of people that do
Was Uwe Boll unavailable?
From the writer of Bathroom Sink? Lol. Jonah Hill’s directorial debut… Read that script on script shadows and was floored by the cliches.
The original Mortal Kombat movie was lovable because it was so camp and fun.
Just checked out Mortal Kombat Legacy and it was so horrible. An entire “season” of nothing but expositions.
It will be tough to live up to that one. It was cheesy as hell, but fun for those who know the games. Who can forget the awesome theme song as well? “TEST YOUR MIGHT!”
I hope they will include the following characters in the reboot film:
Goro, Johnny Cage, Kitana, Kung Lao, Liu Kang, Mileena, Noob Saibot, Raiden, Reptile, Scorpion, Shang Tsung, Shao Kahn, Sonya Blade, Sub-Zero
This kid is fantastic. I’ve never seen anyone dig himself out of a hole like Kevin. He should be an inspiration to every young director out there.
I loved both Rebirth and Legacy. Maybe it wasn’t exactly like the video game but I enjoyed the more realistic approach. My favorite episode was Raiden where they did a great job of blending scifi and the gritty real world style.
All I ask is for a recast of Sonya Blade. I’m sure Jeri Ryan is sweet but she’s the worst Sonya Blade ever.
The first MK movie had potential and can still be saved!
1st Jeri Ryan was awesome
2nd the only recast i’ll allow is Yvonne Strahovski(??) from CHUCK…
As a long-run fan of the video game series I thought Legacy was an excellent, albeit a bit different take on the MK Universe. Tancharoen and the rest worked their asses off on both the film pitch and low-budget web series and they deserve a chance at making a full-length film.
Kevin Tancharoen is an outstanding talent and has accomplished a great deal in his young years. His sister Maurissa Tancharoen Whedon is also a talented, screenwriter, playwright, singer and actress, and of course she is beautiful as well.
Nice family.
This is going to be epic…epically disappointing. Complete and utter failure is what I see for it. The movie, concept, etc may all be well and good, but the fact of the matter is, “Who the fuck cares?”. It’s MORTAL KOMBAT for Christ’s sake. The ONLY purpose it serves is being a video game. A movie based on a game like this will never amount to anything more then rubbish. Can’t have too many characters because it waters down the story, can’t have as much action and gore as the games because people won’t want to watch it. What are you left with then? A big steaming pile of failure.
Keep the actors who played Jax, Stryker, Cyrax, Sektor, Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Quan Chi, Kitana, Mileena, Kano, Baraka, Sindel, and Shang Tsung.
Recast Sonya, Johnny Cage, and Shao Kahn
Agreed to some extent this was the lamest Shao Kahn ever (and that’s saying a lot after Brian Thompson and his poor script in MK Annihilation) in the Mk Legacy the online series. This is Shao Kahn the immortal emperor of Out-world…Destroyer of realms conqueror of civilizations (he said: she (Kitana) will not like me make me another who will) laughable. They should model Shao Kahn on MK Conquest…that is by far the greatet potrayal of Shao Kahn in live action ever. And he is even better than Shao Kahn in Mk 2011 story mode. That is the only Shao Kahn i have ever thought was formidable. Shao Kahn in Mk Conquest the TV series that fought Raiden in the end. Shang Tsung should also be the actor from the series Mk Conquest…other than that i agree with yr statements
Also…the obviously cast her as SOnya cos she is an unreal and immense actor not cos she looks like sonya is supposed to look like some blonde imbo beach bunny…i actually prefer a more adult sonya and more realistic as a warrior not some model straight from victoria secrets
i loved both mk movies, and i generally love the mk universe. when i saw the mk rebirth and legacy series i was amazed how a relatively unknown director, with little funds, can breathe some fresh air in something that hasn’t been touched in so long.
if you think mk legacy sucked, is because you did not get the idea of the episodes – it was just to prove that he can do different things, work on different angles of the story, and that the writer can be creative, because it’s one thing to create 1 single story and stretch it over 10 episodes, and it’s more challenging to do 10 stories, and try to be creative in each and every one of them.
my favorite was rayden and sektor / cyrax, but i also loved the mileena / kitana episodes.
you should also learn to remember that they are doing as much as they can with the little funding they have. they don’t run on millions of dollars, so that is another thing that impresses me.
I am looking forward to this movie. Sub Zero better be in it.
The Machinima MK legacy series was good. My only issue was the length of each episode its too short. Good thing that they are making a movie for it.
Wow Wayne, who hurt you as a child?
In a time where every other movie is being remade, MK legacy has most certainly breathed life into a possible reboot. Someone made the point about MK only serving the purpose of a game, I disagree. Converting games to movies makes just as much sense as comics to movie conversions. Games are no simple storyline, they’re well fleshed out scripts with a backstory for every character….its the same creative process as a comic story, animation, or movie. A successful game can make sense as a movie just as The Watchmen, SinCity, 300, The Dark Knight, etc made good movies. Not many game to movie conversions were a hit, but there was some successes like Resident Evil or Tomb Raider. It takes the right people to make it work, and MK legacy was a success in my opinion. The Franchise deserves a reboot.
I thought the Johnny Cage episode was cool. Didn’t realize they were making fun of the 1st actor to portray JC in the video game. Heard Mark Dacoscos playing Raidan too.
What really got me goin at first was the remixed theme song..it was awesome..jai white’s perfect as jax,he’s got the the exact body frame not to talk of the warrior’s mannerisms..also the plot of rebirth setting the tone for the tournament was cool and realistic but isn’t that taking our hero liu kang out of the picture..also don’t like the idea if johnny cage killed..nevertheless,kevin’s done a great job and deserves the director’s chair for a reboot…
Support you on that katma..as a director,you should be able to explore new possibilities to an original story plot and also the background of the characters..that’s exactly what tanchaoroen has done I’d say he pulled this off successfully..I especially like the idea of sindel merging her soul with her daghter’s to prevent shao kahn from corrupting it…