Mortal Kombat Redo In The Works

There's a surprising little story at Bloody Disgusting which reveals Warner Bros. are in early development of a new Mortal Kombat movie. They've already selected a writer in Oren Uziel, author of the Black List 2009 entry Shimmer Lake. That script was a twisty, suspenseful thriller that combined murder mystery with a bank heist plotline, so it would seem Uziel has a smarter way with narrative than is strictly necessary for a beat 'em up tournament film. Earlier Kombat pictures were depressingly linear and short on ambition.

The game's selling point was gory 'fatalities', finishing moves that saw the little digital fighters turned into ripped up messes of red pixels. To render these money shots faithfully on the big screen would require an R rated picture – at least! – though I'm not sure that will be the plan. Surely Warners can see how the target audience for the film is stuffed with thirteen and fourteen year olds?