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Good news to all fans of Mortal Kombat! The film will be on the silver screen in near future due to the success of the web-series Mortal Kombat: Legacy which was directed by Kevin Tancharoen!

Kevin Tancharoen, a choreographer for Madonna and Britney Spears directed the 2009 remake of Fame as well as the recent Glee 3D Concert movie.

It all started with an 8 minute short film with the title ‘Mortal Kombat: Rebirth‘ which went viral just moments after it was uploaded online. The original video reached 10 million views before it was made private with tons of re-uploads happening after that. Kevin actually made the short film to convince Warner Bros. of his vision to reintroduce Mortal Kombat to the world and the video was not meant to be shown to the world. Yes, it’s an accident! LOL

With the initial success of the short film, Kevin was asked to direct a 10-episode web series which debuted in April 2011 and has since garnered a total of 48 Million Views altogether!

Warner Bros. and New Line was convinced. Just 5 days ago, the news broke out that New Line has confirmed that they’ll be bringing the Mortal Kombat franchise back to the big screen with Kevin Tancharoen as the director and Oren Uziel as the writer.

Mortal Kombat was first released in 1992 which later became a hit worldwide. A movie came out later in 1995 which gained huge success but only to sumble down with a fail attempt in 1997 followed by a TV series which fare badly as well.

Mortal Kombat has been absence from the big screen for 14 years. So it’s definitely something exciting to look forward to now that it’s confirmed!

So, will this lead to more YouTube viral videos appearing online which will inspire a reboot of an awesome franchise?! JENG!!!

Check out the 2 interviews below if you’re really into this. =)

Interview 1

CS: This is some big news! Congratulations! Can you say, in your own words, what today’s announcement means for you?
Kevin Tancharoen: It’s very exciting! I’m so happy that I’ve been a gigantic fan of this title since I was a little kid. This is a dream come true for me. I’m really happy that New Line and Warner Bros. saw the potential after the “Mortal Kombat: Legacy” webseries we did and the numbers that the videogame has done. I’m extremely grateful because it’s been a big, big journey for me.

CS: It seems like it wasn’t all that long ago that your original short was leaked online and everyone was raving about the look of it.
Tancharoen: Yeah! Oddly enough, that wasn’t originally supposed to make it online. I had intended to make that for private use because I can’t deny that my background is very musical. It comes from “Fame” and Britney Spears. I knew that, because of that, no one was going to give me the money to do the stuff that I really wanted to do, which was action, horror films and genre movies. Comic book adaptations. The kind of stuff that I grew up infatuated with. I made that because I knew that nobody was going to give me a shot and I had to do it myself. I made it to send around to executives. The reason that it went online is actually something that makes me seem a little stupid. I wanted to send it out to some colleagues for some input. I wasn’t even completely done yet. The file was like two and half gigs and I don’t have an FTP site. I’m not that fancy. A friend of mine said, “Hey, you can do it for free on YouTube. Just make the link private and whoever has the link will be the only ones who can see it.” I stupidly, because I’m not YouTube saavy, didn’t know how to make the link private. I thought I did and it then went public. It was up there and I was actually very nervous when it went public because I thought I was going to get in a mess of trouble.

CS: Well, it certainly paid off!
Tancharoen: I know! It would have a been a great thing if I had meant to do it from the get-go. It would have made me look a whole lot smarter.

CS: How long has the film version been in discussion? Is this something that has just been decided on today?
Tancharoen: The idea has been floating around even before I made the short film. I was on the mixing stage at Warner Bros. and I had heard about Mortal Kombat and went, “Oh my god! That’s amazing! I know how to do that. I know how to do fight sequences. I know how to choreograph it.” After that, it kind of went away. Then, after the web series did so well, we started talking seriously with New Line about doing a film. They were like, “The numbers are proven and they really like the style and the storytelling.” They said we should go for it.

CS: Is this something that’s going to continue elements of the web series?
Tancharoen: No, this is a new take and it’s not going to continue directly off of the web series. There will be elements that are familiar to the people that have watched it, but it is its own movie. I wanted to make sure that, regardless of anything else, that it’s a good movie. It doesn’t have to be something that you will have had to have seen all ten episodes previously to understand or have played the videogame to understand. It’ll live on its own and be its own film and will hopefully be something that can continue on. It’s such a big story that you could have two or three movies, but I want to make sure that the first one is good on its own.

CS: One of the cool things about “Mortal Kombat” as a property is that everyone knows what it is and the mythology, for anyone, can range from “people fighting” to something much deeper.
Tancharoen: Exactly! And I’ve always been a fan of properties that have been able to expand their universe in different ways. The easiest example for me to mention is Batman. You have Batman, the Nolan films, which are their own universe. Right now, you’ve got Batman: Arkham Asylum, which is another completely different universe. Then you have all the Batman animated stuff, which is a series of completely different takes. Yet it’s all based around the same idea of concept and character. I do think that Mortal Kombat is big enough that you can allow for that kind of character and let in multiple forms of storytelling.

CS: Is it too soon to say which characters we might be seeing in this?
Tancharoen: That I have to keep a secret for now, but you will be seeing a lot of your favorites. That I can guarantee!

CS: What about cast members of the web series? Any chance they’ll reprise their roles or pop up for cameos?
Tancharoen: That’s another one that I’m not able to answer yet and I do apologize for that.

CS: What’s the timeline looking like? When is production being targeted?
Tancharoen: They want to shoot early next year and hopefully get it out in 2013.

CS: So the script has been written?
Tancharoen: We’ve got a good draft of the script, but we’re still working on it with Oren Uziel, who wrote the short. It’s great. It’s really great.
Source : Source: Silas Lesnick

Interview 2

BF: In all honestly, when you made “Rebirth,” how likely did you think it was you’d be here now, about to direct a full-length feature film?

KT: It was such a crapshoot for me. I honestly felt it was 50/50. Previous to doing it I had some discussions with Warner executives about Mortal Kombat, but they didn’t go anywhere. This video was meant to be a showcase that I didn’t only have to do dancing stuff, even though that was primarily my background. I was desperate to get into the genre space. As a director you can get typecast just like an actor. I knew nobody would risk putting my name in front of a genre movie. There would be an outcry by fans with everyone asking, “Why are you getting the guy who did ‘Fame’ to make ‘Mortal Kombat’?” I knew I had to get some credibility.

BF: So what’s your background with Mortal Kombat? How long have you been a fan?

KT: It goes back to when I was 13 or 14. It was my favorite game at the arcade, back when arcades existed. Then when they started coming out for Super Nintendo, I bought them all and I still have up to this day. Like everyone, I was mad when they made one that didn’t have any blood.

BF: So who was your favorite character?

KT: I always played Scorpion because I could remember his special move very easily. In the second game I think I switched to Baraka, but Scorpion has always been the go-to character for me.

BF: Both “Rebirth” and “Legacy” were more grounded and realistic than a lot of us are used to from certainly the first two movies. Is that what we should expect from your movie?

KT: Yes, my sensibilities lean more toward realism as opposed to the more mythological stuff that Mortal Kombat automatically has. You can expect more of that instinct in the feature version. It will be more realistic and gritty than the last two movies, but also a very big story.

BF: You created some new origins for the Mortal Kombat characters in your Web shorts. Will you use similar origins in the movie?

KT: Yes. Although we’re very adamant that you don’t have to be a fan of the games to understand what’s happening in the movie. It will be an origin story that you can understand completely from the film. Over nine games, the mythology has gotten quite complicated.

BF: You’re making this movie for Warner Bros. and Mortal Kombat is now made by Warner Bros. So have you gotten to work together with [Mortal Kombat creator] Ed Boon?

KT: Yes, Ed Boon is completely supportive. He understands that to tell a really good story, Mortal Kombat needs to be taken back to basics. [Writer Oren Uziel and I] sat down and talked with Ed over breakfast at Comic-Con. A lot of our ideas are in line. I’ve got to admit I was very nervous … but a lot of our ideas connected.

BF: So is there any question your movie will be rated R and be just as violent as fans expect?

KT: I want to do it rated R and all the discussions have been for it to be rated R. I want it to be bloody, but in a natural sense and not gratuitous, crazy spurting pools of blood. That takes it to a different level of camp.

BF: So you want to have more of a Christopher Nolan-like approach than the 1990s movies?

KT: The cartoonish version has been done. Chris Nolan started the trend of making everything in this type of genre grounded. What took most people by surprise with my shorts, I think, is that you never would think of putting Mortal Kombat in a realistic setting. But I believe it’s a fighting game and it’s meant for that purpose.

Source : Ben Fritz

I wonder how will the Glee Director re-create the realm of Mortal Kombat up on the screen for fans worldwide.
*Btw, why is there no news on Street Fighter? T_T

Related Links :
Kevin Tancharoen on Twitter
Watch Mortal Kombat : Legacy Web Series on YouTube

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