New 'Mortal Kombat' Live-Action Reboot Planned for 2013 Release

A new version of "Mortal Kombat" will likely head to the big-screen in 2013. It has been announced that New Line Cinema teams up with the Burbank studio's video game unit Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment to bring back the martial art franchise in a live-action reboot. For the project, the studio has tapped Oren Uziel and Kevin Tancharoen to serve as the scribe and the director respectively.

Previously, Uziel and Tancharoen had made an eight-minute short film "Mortal Kombat: Rebirth", which stars Michael Jai White as Jax, Jeri Ryan as Sonya Blade, Matt Mullins as Johnny Cage, Ian Anthony Dale as Scorpion, and Lateef Crowder as Baraka. The short film was made to impress Warner Bros., but the studio reportedly was not amused by the result and decided to shut down the project.

However, Tancharoen signed a deal with WB's digital division, Warner Premiere, to direct a 9-part series of promotional Web episodes called "Mortal Kombat: Legacy". The series started airing on YouTube last April and became a viral hit. The successful online series convinced WB and New Line to allow Tancharoen to direct the reboot.

New Line President Toby Emmerich admitted that the idea of creating the movie came entirely from Tancharoen's online series. He said, "The new game and the online shorts prompted us to consider a reboot of a brand we hadn't been actively thinking about." Meanwhile, Warner Home Entertainment President, 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."

First "Mortal Kombat" movie was released in 1995 and raked in $122 million worldwide. Its sequel "Mortal Kombat: Annihilation" was dropped in 1997 and grossed only $51.3 million worldwide. As for the upcoming reboot, New Line still keeps the storyline secret but plans to begin the production next year.