James Wan's Mortal Kombat reboot finds director

Looks like we’re going to be seeing a few more FATALITIES on the big screen soon…

A movie reboot of video game franchise ‘Mortal Kombat’ is in the works at New Line Cinema, with James Wan producing – and now it has found its director.

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Variety reports that Simon McQuoid, an Australian TV commercials director (credits including PlayStation, Halo, Range Rover and Beats by Dre), is in talks to make his feature debut on the film.

Launched in 1992 by the now-defunct Midway Games, ‘Mortal Kombat’ quickly became one of the most popular beat-‘em-up video games ever, and also the cause of some controversy due to its graphic violence.

It also became one of the first video games to be adapted for the big screen. The 1995 movie was the Hollywood debut of director Paul WS Anderson, and was at the time the most well-received video game movie; not exactly major praise, though, given that the only other examples of the genre at the time were 1993’s ‘Super Mario Bros,’ and 1994’s ‘Street Fighter’ and ‘Double Dragon.’

But while the first ‘Mortal Kombat’ movie fared reasonably well, earning almost $123 million at the global box office off a reported $20 million budget, 1997 sequel ‘Mortal Kombat: Annihilation’ flopped, making barely $51 million worldwide.

TV series ‘Mortal Kombat: Conquest’ followed in the late 1990s. More recently, the franchise was rejuvenated by short film ‘Mortal Kombat: Rebirth’ and web series ‘Mortal Kombat: Legacy,’ which adhered more closely to the gore-heavy nature of the video games than the PG-13 rated movies.

No release date for the big screen ‘Mortal Kombat’ reboot has been announced at present.

Picture credit: Warner Bros, New Line Cinema