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Mortal Kombat film director steps aside to avoid a creative fatality
Kevin Tancharoen, the director of Mortal Kombat: Legacy, has officially stepped away from all things mortal and combative, he revealed via Twitter. Tancharoen headed up the Legacy webseries after launching Mortal Kombat Rebirth, a short, gritty film starring classic Mortal Kombat characters, in 2010. In 2011, New Line Cinema tapped Tancharoen to direct a feature film in the Mortal Kombat universe, though the franchise's IP rights were in limbo at the time. "After 3 years of Kombat, I've decided to move on to other creative opportunities," he writes. "I wish everyone involved in the movie big success. Thanks!" The entire second season of Mortal Kombat: Legacy went live courtesy of Machinima on September 27. It's 10 episodes long, so if news of Tancharoen's departure has you hankering for a fight, get started here.
Mortal Kombat web series: From leak to Legacy
In June of last year, a video short appeared online under the name "Mortal Kombat: Rebirth." It was a polished, inventive take on the now classic fighting game franchise. Initially, its origins were unknown and fans could only speculate: Was it a clip from a new movie? An elaborate teaser for a new game? Quickly, however, director and choreographer Kevin Tancharoen's name was attached to the project, and then the actress playing Sonya Blade, Jeri Ryan, confirmed on Twitter that it wasn't a trailer at all, but a pitch aimed at Warner Bros. One that wasn't supposed to have been made public. "I wasn't exactly thrilled that it was leaked," Ryan says now, almost a year later. She had done the short as a favor for Tancharoen, whom she knew through a friend. Ryan first heard about the leak from fans while on a movie set in Montreal. "I came to the set, and later that day, there were 3000 tweets saying, 'What is this, what is this, what is this, what is this?' It was just crazy." "It wasn't supposed to go on the internet," reiterates Tancharoen, who had created the short film with his own money to send "out to different producers and things like that." He had uploaded it to YouTube on what he thought was a private page -- and the rest is history. Lucky for Tancharoen, Rebirth did reach Warner Bros. and impressed the studio enough to land the director a gig creating a live-action web series, Mortal Kombat: Legacy, to promote the new game. The first episode premiered today.
Mortal Kombat web series to debut on April 12
With under two weeks left until the official launch of the new Mortal Kombat, the game's companion live-action web series has been given a premiere date: April 12. According to Hadoken.net, the first episode will be available via Machinima at 4PM PST, following a live stream event. Select actors from the series and show director Kevin Tancharoen will play Mortal Kombat during the stream, and then introduce the episode. We're waiting to hear back from Warner Bros. about the scheduling of the next eight episodes, but we imagine you'll see more around the game's April 19 launch day. For now, we've got the image of two ladies from the film fighting just above. It's the least we could do.
Jeri Ryan, Michael Jai White reprise 'Rebirth' roles in Mortal Kombat live-action series
Warner Bros. today confirmed the initial casting for the Mortal Kombat live-action digital series, which began shooting in Vancouver this month. Both Jeri Ryan (who spilled the beans last week on Twitter) and Michael Jai White will reprise their roles as Sonya Blade and Jax, respectively, from last year's "unofficial fan short" Mortal Kombat: Rebirth -- which was actually a totally professional pitch for a reimagined MK film, made by director Kevin Tancharoen. (While he didn't land the movie deal, Tancharoen did secure a gig directing, producing and co-writing the upcoming digital shorts.) Joining the duo of do-gooders will be Kano, played by Darren Shahlavi, who voiced one of the Tier 1 Operators in Medal of Honor and was an uncredited "Persian" in 300 -- so, obviously, dude knows how to fight. Surely, punches will be thrown and blood will be spilled as Tancharoen and cast resolve this storied love triangle in a hurry. The Mortal Kombat digital series is expected to span nine short episodes and will also feature Scorpion, Sub-Zero and additional characters from the game's universe. The shorts will be "available online" this spring, in conjunction with the April 19 release of the new Mortal Kombat game. "BTW, just finished reading the whole script for Mortal Kombat," Ryan recently tweeted. "Holy crap... I think u might just love it." [Pictured: Ryan (right) and Jai White in Mortal Kombat: Rebirth test footage]
Mortal Kombat live-action series to span 9 episodes
Director Kevin Tancharoen is planning to film nine episodes, running between seven and ten minutes each, for the live-action Mortal Kombat series that was announced by Warner Bros. earlier this month. In an interview with Gamasutra, Tancharoen says that the sure-to-be-violent vignettes will delve into the spiky backgrounds of Mortal Kombat's characters, with more prominent fixtures (like Scorpion) possibly warranting two-part stories. Shooting is scheduled to begin in Vancouver this February. Tancharoen gained the attention of franchise fans and the media after the release of test footage from his Mortal Kombat: Rebirth, a gritty, modernized spin that ditched cross-dimensional tournaments, goateed sorcerers and hell ninjas for something even more outlandish: a guy eating refrigerated heads and an undercover agent who used to be a movie star. Wait -- make that the unintentional release of the Rebirth test footage. "It was still in its rough phase, but I couldn't send a 2GB file over email, so my friend said I could create a private page on YouTube and sent [sic] it to him to review," Tancharoen recalls. "It turns out it wasn't that private."
Warner confirms live-action Mortal Kombat digital series by 'Rebirth' director, coming this spring
Last summer's "unofficial" Mortal Kombat: Rebirth test footage has landed its director, Kevin Tancharoen, a job with Warner Bros. While Rebirth won't become a full-length feature film (you can't kill off Johnny Cage like that!), Warner apparently saw something in the imaginative re-imagination of its new aging fighting game franchise. As reported earlier this month, Tancharoen will helm a series of live-action Mortal Kombat digital shorts, which will be released in conjunction with the new game (launching April 19) "this spring through online digital retailers." Does that mean we have to pay for them? Warner teased that the digital series, to commence (crunch time) filming in Vancouver early next month, will provide "never-before-revealed insights" into the characters from the new game and its "universe," including Liu Kang and, of course, the beloved Johnny Cage (you see, Tancharoen?). The company will reveal further details shortly, including casting (and, hopefully, the fact that these webisodes will be totally, 100 percent free -- right Warner?). It's been reported that Michael Jai White will reprise his Rebirth role as Jax. [Pictured: Scorpion from MK: Rebirth test footage; full video after the break]
Gritty Mortal Kombat concept trailer getting a webisode series
Remember that super violent, Michael Jai White-fronted trailer for a Mortal Kombat film reboot that magically appeared on the internet last summer? Well, sadly, it failed to sell Warner Bros. on the prospect of turning the trailer into a full, proper film -- but that doesn't mean the project is totally dead. According to horror fan site Bloody Disgusting, director Kevin Tancharoen will begin filming a 10-part Mortal Kombat webisode series next month, following in the same gritty vein as last year's pilot. Other than Jai White's continued involvement as Jax, Bloody Disgusting didn't mention many other details about the series' storyline. We'd usually like a little more reassurance than that; fortunately for these webisodes, the bar for Mortal Kombat-based pieces of cinema is unimaginably low. Like, low. We're talking subterranean, people. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]
'Mortal Kombat Rebirth' footage gets over here [Update]
Just under eight minutes of something related to Mortal Kombat has been posted on YouTube. The video features Jax -- sans cybernetic arms -- grilling a mysterious perp in a police station. Through some (laborious) exposition, he describes new humanized (and gross) versions of Reptile and Baraka, along with Johnny Cage and a young, beardless Shang Tsung. At first glance, one might assume it's footage from the new, possibly derailed Mortal Kombat movie. Another possibility, given the video's proximity to E3 and its introductory nature, is that this is a tease for the next Mortal Kombat game. Furthermore, the name of the newly created YouTube account is MortalKombatRebirth, which sounds like a perfectly suitable title for a new entry in the series. A third and altogether frightening possibility: This is all a prelude to a new movie / game tie-in. We know Warner Bros. is interested in the franchise, so it's safe to assume something is on the horizon. We've contacted WBIE for more info. One way or another, it seems likely we'll hear more by next week. Update: Latino Review claims that it's a test video directed by Kevin Tancharoen, and offers a near-complete list of the featured cast. Update 2: Actress Jeri Ryan, seen in the short playing Sonya Blade, offered further comment about the project on Twitter. "It's not a game trailer," Ryan said. "Actually was made for the director to sell WB on his vision for a reimagined MK film." She said she had "No idea yet what WB's reaction to it was." [Via Kotaku]
