Commercials director Simon McQuoid is in talks with New Line to direct their Mortal Kombat reboot, according to Variety‘s Justin Kroll.
The Australian director is among the most in demand commercials director and much of his work can be seen at his website in the link above. The film will be produced by James Wan, among others, and the most recent script draft was written by Greg Russo.
The Mortal Kombat franchise began as an arcade game before evolving into a video game series as well as two previous film adaptations, Paul W.S. Anderson’s 1995 original and the poorly-recieved sequel Annihilation. The games are in development under co-creator and creative director Ed Boon at NeverRealm Studios, which, like New Line, is a Warner Bros. subsidiary. Current WB Chairman Kevin Tsujihara revived the property with the premiere of the web series Mortal Kombat: Legacy.
The first film is a bit of a cult classic now for its traditional elements and schlocky fun. Given that we aren’t going to see a cool Dragon Ball Z movie any time soon, this is about as close as I can hope for as far as mystical martial arts movies goes. Better yet, it feels like the moment is ripe for fresh – perhaps grittier – take on the material. In that vein, get The Raid stars like Iko Uwais and Yayan Ruhian on this ASAP.
Source: Variety