Christopher Lambert Talks New MORTAL KOMBAT Movie And A Possible Raiden Comeback
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| New Line Cinema |
Beware… I cuss a little bit here…
Let me start off by telling you to forget what you think you probably already know or may have heard about Mortal Kombat regarding anything webseries or film. Most of the internet shit itself over a stupid fancast article that went viral citing how “they just cast the upcoming Mortal Kombat movie” or some dumb piece of shit headline like that.
Shit like that pisses me off because it signifies how stupidhappy fans get over fake news – Even more so with respect to all things Mortal Kombat which is one film franchise I’ve been dying to see all the way through since it became a hit on the big screen in 1995 sans Mortal Kombat: Annihilation. No, we never saw a third occur as much as it was hyped about at the time and by 2010, all hope was pretty much dead.
Leave it to the likes of Fame helmer Kevin Tancharoen who would grip fans once more with a bolsteringly badass seven-minute fan pitch that leaked online, ultimately landing him in the director’s chair for a two season Legacy webseries and the promise of a new movie since 2011. Well, it’s 2016 and Tancharoen abandoned the film altogether following creative differences with Warner Bros., which further led to more news on both fronts of film and digital content.
Alas, with industry stunt coordinator Garrett Warren making his directing debut with Blue Ribbon Content for a third MK webseries tying in to the recent game, The Conjuring franchise helmer James Wan has since jumped aboard with WB to produce a version of the film as well. All has been quiet since then but it does leave one hopeful for progress as we await the next phase of actually getting this film to move forward, which now brings us to something REALLY interesting from an interview now being featured at UK print, Loaded.
On the heels of seeing the latest UK DVD and Blu-Ray releases of the fantasy sci-fi cult classic, Highlander, the film’s star, actor Christopher Lambert who starred in the New Line Cinema’s original 1995 Mortal Kombat in the role of Raiden, spoke to Loaded about what New Line Cinema is onto with a third movie, which could involve time-travel.
“They have a great idea for the third one,” he said. “It will be very different.”
He continued:
“We are going to be travelling through time but in a very special way. So imagine characters having a battle in the middle of London and then whoosh, you smash through a window and find yourself on the hood of a New York cab.”
Warner Bros. ended up fighting a legal battle back in 2010 with Threshold Entertainment over the rights to the film after failing to move forward with a third installment after 2006. WB subsequetly won the rights the following year and proceeded to move forward with plans to make Mortal Kombat happen once again, and at the time with Tancharoen’s skillfully-crafted pitch with Michael Jai White, Ian Anthony Dale, Jeri Ryan, Matt Mullins and Lateef Crowder, it appeared that both the studio AND its fans struck gold.
With that in mind and with someone like James Wan helping lead the way toward a third film, the prospect of seeing Lambert reprise his role once more as the God of Thunder good very well be a major thing for this film. Lambert himself stated he never returned for the second film in 1997 due to its poor script, and surely enough, he wasn’t lying about how poor it was.
Entertaining at the very least? Sure, but not the best sequel to a game adaptation and a non-starter for any conversation about the promotion of videogame movies.
A director now awaits to come forward and helm what looks to be a massive Mortal Kombat movie after years of game installmemts with new characters emerging onto the arena, and to be honest, that announcement can’t fast enough. If I see one more fancast article circulate the web through people believing it as “fact”, I’m going to throw my Kung Lao saw hat into the floor and run myself through it.
Stay tuned for more info!
Native New Yorker. Lover of all things pizza, chocolate, pets, and good friends. Karaoke hero. Left of center. Survivor. Fond supporter of cult, obscure and independent cinema - especially fond of Asian movies and global action cinema. Author of the bi-weekly Hit List. Founder and editor of Film Combat Syndicate. Still, very much, only human.
July 12, 2016 @ 5:37 pm
I don't like the idea of "time travel" for a Mortal Kombat movie. I would rather them start from fresh and build on sequels with a locked down cast.
As for story; I had tonnes of ideas for the story that would follow so-damn-close to the game story, mixed with new sub plots to deepen the story. Things like; Shang's Island disguising it's true horror under Shang's power, only to be fully revealed when Shang needs to summon every last bit of power for his "final battle". Small things but the devil is in the detail they say.
As for characters; Well in the movie, there needs to be "death". So some characters will have to be somewhat "fodder" for the movie but still have some weight behind their character for the viewers to kind of care. Characters like; Kobra, Kai, Jerek, Kira. With some characters from other MK related media, such as; Kabrak, Baraka's number 1 general of his nomad army. Typical Shaolin Monk and follower of Liu Kang. Fighting demon monks from Outworld. With character like this in the movie, mean not having to kill off (or at least a bulk of) the main cast/characters since they are the ones the viewers and fans want to see in action. Yes some could die and come back, but lets not get too technical here.
With all this I have ready to give, it's just too hard to be heard by the right people that will at least listen. As a big fan of the franchise, it hurts. But so does life I guess.
July 12, 2016 @ 5:46 pm
Those ideas sound really great David! There's so much potential to build MK into something as great as that and so many chances have come and gone in the last ten years. I want this film to happen SO bad and the addition of Lambert could mean something VERY exciting to come. I hope he stays on track with this because if him walking away from MK2 over script issues doesn't tell us anything else, it says that he knows a winner when he sees one.