New details for Mortal Kombat’s big-screen reboot surface online

By Rick Marshall November 7, 2012

Not only is the long-rumored reboot of the Mortal Kombat movie franchise happening, it could receive a bigger budget than both of its predecessors.

Speaking with Web Series Network at the Marseille Webfest, Warner Bros. exec Lance Sloane described the upcoming reboot directed by Mortal Kombat: Legacy filmmaker Kevin Tancharoen as a “$40-50 million feature film,” and indicated that it was one of the studio’s spotlight projects on their upcoming slate.

You can watch the video with Sloane below:

If Sloane’s estimate of the as-yet-untitled film’s budget is accurate, that would give it the highest budget of any film in the franchise so far. The original 1995 Mortal Kombat was made for an estimated $18 million and generated $122 million at the worldwide box office, while its follow-up, 1997’s Mortal Kombat: Annihilation was budgeted for $30 million but only generated $44.5 million at the box office. A third film, Mortal Kombat: Devastation was shelved due to the poor performance of Annihilation.

Tancharoen found his way to the reboot director’s chair after creating a short film titled Mortal Kombat: Rebirth that went viral online in 2010. As Sloane mentions in the video, Mortal Kombat rights-holders Warner Bros. initially sent its legal team after Tancharoen, but eventually ended up having him direct a web series based on the franchise titled Mortal Kombat: Legacy. The series was received well, and a second “season” is in production now in addition to the upcoming big-screen reboot.

Also on the Mortal Kombat wire is some unconfirmed information regarding the film’s plot that may or may not pan out as fact, but is interesting all the same.

According to movie blog Bloody Disgusting, the live-action film will tell the story of “a lowly unlucky supermarket employee who discovers that he has out of this world powers and must decide between good and evil, even though the evil side has helped him discover his true potential and who he really is.”

While that plot sounds suspiciously like the premise of the Evil Dead movies, nothing has been confirmed at this point regarding Mortal Kombat outside of Tancharoen’s involvement and Sloane’s comments.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Entertainment

Former Digital Trends Contributor

A veteran journalist with more than two decades of experience covering local and national news, arts and entertainment, and…

Gaming

Best PS5 SSD deals: Add more storage to your PS5 from $120

A 2TB WD Black

When the PlayStation 5 was originally released, it had the option to expand its internal memory, which was quite small at the time at a little under 900GBs. Of course, the issue is that there weren't any SSDs that worked on the new standard the PS5 was using, so even if you wanted to upgrade, you couldn't. Luckily, since then, there have been a lot of great SSDs for the PS5 that have been released, and upgrading its storage is pretty easy and can be done by pretty much anybody, provided they have a screwdriver. So, whether you picked up a PS5 from one of the PS5 deals or already have a PS5 and want to upgrade, be sure to check out the SSDs that will work great for your PS5 below.
Our favorite PS5 SSD deal

It wasn't that long ago that you'd have to pay well over $100 to get an SSD for your PS5, and often, it'd be slower than the pricier alternatives. These days, you can buy a Samsung 980 Pro 1TB SSD with heatsink for just $120 from Best Buy, thereby saving $45 off the regular price of $165. The SSD offers speedy performance while also having its own nickel-coated high-end controller to help deliver effective thermal control. It means it won't overheat and performance won't be compromised. Being a PCIe Gen 4 SSD, you get twice the data transfer speed of PCIe Gen 3 which is useful. Offering maximum read speeds of 7,000 megabytes per second, it's a good upgrade to go alongside your existing hard drive with 1TB offering plenty of extra space at a shrewd price.

Gaming

The Sims 5: release date speculation, trailers, gameplay, and more

sims 4 for rent expansion pack shared living the 6

It's time to brush up on your Simlish if it's rusty because the long-awaited The Sims 5, aka Project Rene, is officially on the way. This has been the longest gap between main entries since the series began, and while we did get tons of expansions for The Sims 4 to hold us over, plus the change to it becoming free to play, we're more than ready for a new entry. Each time a new game in the franchise comes out, die-hard fans always need to have a bit of skepticism about what features will be there -- both new and returning.

We can't answer all your questions yet, but here's everything we know about The Sims 5.
Release date speculation

Gaming

VR headset deals: Meta Quest 2 and VIVE XR

htc vive vs pro headphones

While VR may not be as big as was predicted back in the early 2000s when the original Oculus Go was released, there is still a considerable market these days, and some great VR games like Half-Life: Alyx that you can have fun with. Of course, VR headsets remain expensive, and while options like the Meta Quest don't necessarily require a high-end gaming PC, they can still be a bit pricey for those who just want to put a foot in the hobby. Luckily, there are some good deals you can take advantage of, even on some of the best VR headsets, so be sure to check out all your options below.
Meta Quest 2 -- $199, was $200

Even though the Meta Quest 3 came out quite recently, the Meta Quest 2 is still a pretty powerful contender, especially since it has a wider library and app support than the Quest 3 currently has. Even more so, the Quest 2 is a lot cheaper than the Quest 3, and with the latest permanent discount down to just $200, that's a whole $300 or so difference from the Quest 3. Of course, the Quest 3 does have more advanced AR and slightly better performance with software and Wi-Fi, but that may not be worth the extra cost for some. Either way, be sure to check out the breakdown between Quest 2 and Quest 3 to get a better sense of what you should pick up.