Warner Bros.’ New Line Cinema has announced that cameras are officially rolling on the new Mortal Kombat movie with production officially underway in South Australia. Simon McQuoid will direct the film, marking his feature directorial debut, from a script by Greg Russo.
The diverse international cast reflects the global nature of the brand. It includes talent spanning the worlds of film, television and martial arts. The ensemble includes Joe Taslim as Sub Zero, Ludi Lin as Liu Kang, Jessica McNamee as Sonya Blade, Josh Lawson as Kano, and Tadanobu Asano as Raiden. Mehcad Brooks plays Jackson “Jax” Bridges, with Chin Han as Shang Tsung, Hiroyuki Sanada as Scorpion, Max Huang as Kung Lao, and Sisi Stringer as Mileena. Lewis Tan has a still-unknown role.
RELATED: True to the Game, the Hard-R Mortal Kombat Movie Will Have Fatalities
James Wan (The Conjuring universe, Aquaman) and Todd Garner (Into the Storm, Tag) are producing. Additionally, Larry Kasanoff, E. Bennett Walsh, Michael Clear and Jeremy Stein are serving as executive producers.
Bringing the hugely popular property to the big screen, McQuoid will lead a team of Australian and U.S. filmmakers. They include director of photography Germain McMicking (True Detective, Top of the Lake: China Girl), production designer Naaman Marshall (Underwater, Servant), editor Scott Gray (Top of the Lake, Daffodils), and costume designer Cappi Ireland (Lion, The Rover).
Mortal Kombat bows in theaters worldwide on March 5, 2021.
Midway Games developed the first video game in the series, released in 1992. The storyline sees a diverse range of fighters from eighteen different realms pitted against one another in an epic tournament. Quite a few sequels followed the original game with the most recent, Mortal Kombat 11, released earlier this year.
Two Mortal Kombat movies were previously made. Paul W.S. Anderson directed the first, simply titled Mortal Kombat, released in 1995. A sequel, Annihilation, followed two years later, which also paved the way for two television series: the animated Defenders of the Realm and the live-action Konquest. Kevin Tancharoen also directed two web series based on the property.
