Remake of Mortal Kombat film coming?

By Ellie Gibson Published 26 January, 2010

Hot new screenwriter apparently in talks.

Warner Bros. is looking to remake the 1995 Mortal Kombat movie, according to BloodyDisgusting.

Word is that writer Oren Uziel is in talks to produce the script. Uziel's previous work includes Shimmer Lake, which made the 2009 black list of Hollywood's best unproduced screenplays.

The original Mortal Kombat film was a big old mess, despite the fact it starred Christopher Lambert. So will the remake be any better? Who would you cast in the starring role, readers?

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (43) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • 52pickup #1 2 years ago

    Sometimes, video game based movies do not work (actually 99% of the time). Look at the 2nd SF movie, didn't that flop, and that was a restart, kind of.

  • JohnnyWashnGo #2 2 years ago

    Does anybody care about Mortal Kombat anymore?

  • rodpad #3 2 years ago

    The original Mortal Kombat film was fantastic I'll have you know! The sequel however wasn't.

  • Joco84 #4 2 years ago

    Fatality!

  • schnide #5 2 years ago

    I can normally smell shit films from a mile away, and I'm not the easiest filmgoer to please - but I really enjoyed MK1, and rodpad's spot on - it was only MK2 which was fucking awful.

  • ignatiusjreilly #6 2 years ago

    I don't think anyone really cares about these movies do they? Except the studios who make their small piece of guaranteed profit and move on to the next one. Even the people making them don't really expect them to be or care if they are any good, and that's a pretty poor basis on which to make a film.

    edit: OK, according to the comments I'm just wrong :D
    Edited by 1 at 26/01/10 @ 09:57

  • TruSmiles #7 2 years ago

    Agreed with rodpad, the original Moral Kombat was actually a good film, but the rest of them were awful. I still think the original was the best video game based film I've ever seen.
    Edited by 1 at 26/01/10 @ 10:55

  • Embra #8 2 years ago

    MK1 is just such a guilty pleasure. How come no blu-ray version?!! Blummin' Street Fighter oozed its way out on the shiny new format...

  • creepylizard #9 2 years ago

    God, its annoying when they remake good films let alone shit ones....

  • Bander #10 2 years ago

    [link url=http://www .youtube.com/watch?v=UMf40daefsI
    ]http://www .youtube.com/watch?v=UMf40daefsI
    [/link]

    Still one of the best video game movies ever made. Can't say that I care about the games though.

  • Singularity #11 2 years ago

    I really enjoyed the first Mortal Kombat movie, too.

    But then, do I look like your movie critic?

  • reelbigkris #12 2 years ago

    Paul W.S Anderson might come back to make it. just keep the Boll away from it, for gods sake no!!

  • Gearskin #13 2 years ago

    Mortal Kombat was awesome. Great looking movie for the modest budget, excellent fight scenes.

  • Zebula77 #14 2 years ago

    This will probably be crap (like the Tekken movie most definitely will be), but if they ramp up the gore and blood content and have the actual finishing moves from the games, it could be a fun watch.

    I doubt that, however.

  • guernican #15 2 years ago

    Surely Anthony Hopkins as Raiden, the chap who played Lo Pan in Big Trouble in Little China as Liu Kang, Danny Dyer as Baraka, and, er... anyone as Scorpion. He wears a mask, you see.

    Oooh, ooh, I've got it. Sean Penn. Sean Penn as Scorpion.
    Edited by 1 at 26/01/10 @ 11:06

  • Doctor_What #16 2 years ago

    MK1 is great fun. Ellie, how dare you say such things? :D

  • geeza2020 #17 2 years ago

    mortal kombat is a terrible film. But if you let go of your critique hat and just have fun with it (or get drunk before you watch it) it can be a real good laugh, especially with friends. Definitely a far superior film to Street Fighter which is just painful, and if you try to watch SF while drunk, you may end up gettin so depressed you'll probably kill yourself.

    Anyway i dont have high hopes for this, MK doesnt have the story to be made into a film AGAIN. Its a beat em up for christs sake!

  • metalmonk #18 2 years ago

    Talking of the Tekken movie.........
    http://www .youtube.com/watch?v=lLp11xLqhQQ

  • Phishfood #19 2 years ago

    Fighting game movies have never worked because the story was always too weak. I would cast Donny Yen as Liu Kang, Jason Statham as Kano, any random guys as Scorpion and Sub Zero because we don't need to see their faces, maybe Hilary Swank as Sonya Blade

  • mcwildcard #20 2 years ago

    I liked the original MK film, it was fairly ridiculous, but didn't pretend to be anything other than a pure spectacle.
    The sequel was toilet though.
    Oddly, the TV series was quite watchable, although I think that might be attributable to the fitness of Kritanna Loken in one of her early roles.

    The Tekken film looks on the same track as the original MK film, whereas the Chun Li film made the heinous mistake of trying to have a proper plot.

    The KoF film isn't worth my breath, I was pumped about it until I saw the trailer with swords and all such nonsense.

  • redneon Verified Programmer, SUMO Digital #21 2 years ago

    Come on, give me a break!

  • Skeletor #22 2 years ago

    Really enjoyed the MK movie back in the nineties! Would like to see an R-Rated remake with professional martial arts fighters. No famous actors needed here.
    Better let Isaac Florentine direct it, his Ninja movie is ace!

  • KillerMonkey #23 2 years ago

    Why not leave the awesome cheesy MK movie alone and make a Soul Calibur movie? That's one beat-em-up that actually has some kind of deeper storyline. And it's an excellent excuse for lots of hot chicks with jiggly bewbs fighting with eachother, possibly in the mud/rain.

  • chrisola #24 2 years ago

    I'd cast these people (off the top of my head!):

    Scott Adkins as Scorpion
    Ray Park as Sub Zero
    Cung Le as Liu Kang
    Gordon Liu as Shang Tsung
    Michael Jai White or Ving Raimes as Jax
    Kelly Hu as Katana

    Give it to the guy that directed Undisputed 2 & Ninja (Isaac Florentine) or John Hyams (Universal Soldier: ReGen)

    B movie of epic fighting potential right there!

  • M_of_the_sys #25 2 years ago

    If they went down the Street Fighter path of basing it on an individual character(s), which one would you like to see? I would have to go with the story of Sub-Zero and Scorpion myself.

  • shadow1979 #26 2 years ago

    The only way they can make this movie any good is if it's intentionally *really* bad. I could do with another b grade popcorn drivel movie

  • Dr-Freudstein #27 2 years ago

    first one was excellent for what it was. remake needs scott adkins as jonny cage and michael jai white as jax... ray park should slot in there somewhere too

  • rodpad #28 2 years ago

    Fantasy hollywood kung-fu at it's best: http://www .youtube.com/watch?v=cxrM9erjKOA

  • Zebula77 #29 2 years ago

    Ray Park was actually IN one of the MKs. He was Raiden's stunt double.

  • The-Bodybuilder #30 2 years ago

    Are things so bad at hollywood now, that they are willing to remake anything? Including a rubbish movie of a game that came out only 15 years ago?
    Edited by 1 at 26/01/10 @ 17:08

  • mr.smeg #31 2 years ago

    Ahh Christopher Lambert you say? Have you guys seen the review of his movie 'Druids' at somethingawful.com?

    [link url=http://www.somethingawful.com/d/movie-reviews/druids.php
    ]http://ww w.somethingawful.com/d/movie-re...[/link]

    Don't mention it.

  • captainrentboy #32 2 years ago

    I think Mortal Kombat is easily the best game to movie adaptation there's ever been, I know that's not a whole lot of praise but still. For me it stands up quite well as your standard, slightly cheesy, beat 'em up action flick. It's basically Enter The Dragon coupled with some rather nifty fight sequences and, for the year it was released anyway, nice special effects.
    Mortal Kombat 2 on the other hand was utter shite!

    Edit- And Chrisola, you really know your modern day martial arts stars :) Undisputed 2 effin rocks!!!
    Edited by 1 at 26/01/10 @ 18:24

  • LazyNinjaUk #33 2 years ago

    They've been trying to make another MK film for more than a decade now, so I hope they actually get round to it this time. Annihilation was shite on a stick bad, and the first one was by no means perfect but I still like it.

    Compared to the gash video game adaptations that have come since, Mortal Kombat is like the fucking Shawshank Redemption in comparrison.

  • Waffleaber #34 2 years ago

    Sorry but each and every one of you is wrong. Mortal Kombat Anihillation was a great film. It's probably the most accurate video games film ever. It features nearly every character in mk3 (and there are lots of them) in authentic roles and is basically just a series of fights with little to no motivation just like the game. The music was also excellent.

    Even better Johnny Cage gets murdered almost instantly.

  • Koborover #35 2 years ago

    The MK movie by Paul W.S. Anderson is probably the best possible adaptation of the subject matter. It was a stroke of genius to cast Christopher Lambert as Raiden and especially Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as Shang Tsung, they made their characters fun and charismatic. Add in some nice fight sequences (with surprisingly little gore) and awesome techno music and you have a very decent movie based on a fighting game.

  • JamieR #36 2 years ago

    It's will be like the dead or alive film but darker basically and still shite.

  • the_mtfr #37 2 years ago

    "The original Mortal Kombat film was a big old mess"

    Wtf??? It was great! It had as Koborover said, Lambert as Raiden and that-guy as Shang Tsung, they played a million times better than Tom Hanks and Harrison Ford ever did, and ffs... it was a fight movie. It was kick-ass for a fight movie. The Scorpion battle was epic. I wish they don't screw Scorpion up, he has to stay legendary.

    I grew up with the Mortal Kombat 1 movie, kids nowadays grow up with fucking Harry Potter and Twilight... God save us :p
    Edited by 3 at 27/01/10 @ 20:22

  • The-Bodybuilder #38 2 years ago

    >" I grew up with the Mortal Kombat 1 movie, kids nowadays grow up with fucking Harry Potter and Twilight... God save us."

    Why are you saying that with pride? O_o

    I hate both twilight and potter, but roaming on a high horse because you grew up on a mortal kombat movie is probably worse.

  • Mono_X #39 2 years ago

    The DOA movie is the best game-to-movie adaptation I can think of.
    It didn't take itself too seriously and neither did it disrespect the source material. Most importantly it had chicks in skimpy outfits - so clearly they understood the game. :D

  • Kami #40 2 years ago

    ... to be honest, all I can remember from the first movie was some partially famous faces and the theme song.

    The theme song is still awesome though!

    MOOOOOOORTAAAAAAAAAALL KOOOMBAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!

  • muscleblade #41 2 years ago

    I like Michael Jai White. Jax for sure. Its important that they choose actors that has proper martial arts training. I hated the fighting scene with Sonya Blade vs Kano as the actor that played Sonya couldnt do shit. I like Chrisolas list.

  • the_mtfr #42 2 years ago

    @The Bodybuilder, it was on a slight note of humour. Maybe I should edit the post and put a smilie to express that.

  • hellbilly #43 2 years ago

    I read that they are gonna remake the first one. I think its an amazing idea if they do it right. Mortal Kombat needs to be reawakened, so here are the actors i would castLiam Neeson as Raiden.
    Chow Yun Fat as Shang Tsung.
    jung ji-hoon aka Rain main actor for ninja assassin as Liu Kang.
    Jessica Biel as Kitana.
    Jason Statham as Cano.
    Either Wesley Snipes, DMX, or Kimbo Slice as Jax.
    Sean William Scott as Johnny Cage.
    and a super sexy hardass blonde as sonya blade