Over the past year, speculation has been high about the upcoming Mortal Kombat movie reboot including false casting leaks and clarification from the film’s director. With James Wan at the helm, a new report suggests that the movie is in a place where it can begin filming, which means that we could be getting a casting reveal in the near future as well.
The upcoming film reboot will be both produced and filmed in Australia. Even more interesting is that apparently, Mortal Kombat has invaded real-world politics, with South Australia’s Premier Steven Marshall revealing that that the reboot would be the “largest film production” in the area’s history.
The largest film production in South Australia’s history!@warnerbros will bring their epic action film, Mortal Kombat, to life here in SA. SA locations. SA crews. SA VFX companies.
It will enhance our production capabilities and create new jobs for the local film industry. pic.twitter.com/jkPeRuq1Wz
— Steven Marshall, MP (@marshall_steven) May 14, 2019
With a focus on what the movie’s positive impact will be on the area’s income and job opportunities, it’s also a confirmation that the show is definitely on the road for the upcoming reboot. The ‘will they, won’t they’ has been ongoing since the beginning of last year, something that became even more frustrating as numerous (and very well-done) false leaks leaked to the press.
Though we don’t know what the story will be, we do know that Resident Evil’s Greg Russo took on the screenplay, as well as a serious interest in casting Joel Edgerton as Kano.
The original movie was guilty pleasure of mine is that I absolutely adored the 1995 film, making the reboot news something that I’m cautiously excited for. Seeing the martial arts tournament that we knew so well from the games in real life (or real screen) was incredible, even if it did get a little bit cheesy from time to time. For those that missed out on the first movie, here’s the official synopsis:
“Once every generation, there is an inter-dimensional martial arts tournament known as Mortal Kombat, designed by the Elder Gods to limit invasions between the realms of the universe. If the realm of Outworld wins Mortal Kombat ten consecutive times, its Emperor Shao Kahn (voiced by Frank Welker) will be able to invade and conquer the Earth realm. They have already won nine; so this will be their tenth tournament. The Shaolin warrior Liu Kang (Robin Shou) and his comrades, Hollywood movie star Johnny Cage (Linden Ashby) and U.S. Special Forces officer Sonya Blade (Bridgette Wilson), were handpicked by Raiden (Christopher Lambert), the god of lightning and Earthrealm’s defender, to overcome their powerful adversaries in order to prevent Outworld from winning their tenth straight Mortal Kombat tournament. Each of the three has his or her own reason for competing: Liu Kang seeks revenge against tournament host Shang Tsung (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa) for killing his brother Chan (Steven Ho); Sonya also has vengeance on her mind, pursuing crime lord Kano (Trevor Goddard) who killed her partner; Johnny Cage, having been branded as a fake by the media, seeks to prove otherwise to the world.”