When the Mortal Kombat movie reboot was first announced, many feared that it would be a watered down version of a beloved fighting franchise. Now that we have our first casting reveal with Joe Taslim as Sub-Zero, it looks like a few more details have been revealed – including the film’s R rating.
Greg Russo, the Mortal Kombat movie screenwriter, took to Twitter recently to waylay any fan concerns about the level of brutality that can be expected from a very brutal franchise. According to Russo, the movie will be very true to source material, making the R rating a no-brainer, while also promising epic fatalities for fans to witness.
Since it’s already been stated by other members of the team, I’m gonna put this one to bed. MK WILL be R-Rated and for the first time EVER, FATALITIES will FINALLY be on the big screen (and no I’m not gonna say which ones) You’ll just have to wait for the movie & see!!! 😉 pic.twitter.com/aVTewH4t28
— Greg Russo (@WriterRusso) July 12, 2019
“Since it’s already been stated by other members of the team, I’m gonna put this one to bed. MK WILL be R-Rated and for the first time EVER, FATALITIES will FINALLY be on the big screen (and no I’m not gonna say which ones),” reads the above tweet. “You’ll just have to wait for the movie & see!!! ;)”
The responding thread alone is a good indicator of how much this news weighed on interested fans and it’s good to see that Russo is not shying away from what Mortal Kombat is about in favor of “Hollywoodification.”
We don’t have a release date yet for the film, though we do know that the script is done and production is to begin soon. The original movie was a 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.”
