Warner Bros. has revealed that they are producing a new Mortal Kombat film to be produced next year and released in 2013. Warner Bros.’ label, New Line Cinema, is partnering with their video game label, Warner Bros’ Interactive Entertainment to produce the movie.
This project is born of a series of viral Youtube videos called Mortal Kombat: Legacy, which were used to promote the game. The director of the videos, Kevin Tancharoen, has now been asked to do a full feature film, with a screenplay to be written by his partner, Oren Uziel. New Line president Toby Emmerich said, “The new game and the online shorts prompted us to consider a reboot of a brand we hadn’t been actively thinking about.”
The rebooting certainly seems to be a success thus far, with the latest installment in the franchise selling over three million copies – the most successful console release to date. Warner Bros. is no doubt feeling good about purchasing the /mortal Kombat assets from Midway for $49 million.
President of Warner home entertainment Kevin Tsujihara said, “It’s really important that we show we can bring our game properties to movies instead of just the other way around.”
Tancharoen wants to take the Mortal Kombat movie franchise in a different direction, a good idea after the failure of the second film. He wants the movie to have a more realistic feel, presumably in the same way Christopher Nolan had success with the Batman franchise.
The movie is expected to cost under 100 million dollars, but if the shorts are anything to go by, we could be in for something special.

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