watch?v=9_MqZn7E-mk&feature=player_embedded

However one interesting dynamic has come into the picture for this vaporware of a film. Rumors have long plagued this cultish and strange franchise for over 10 year, and now a proper stir has come into the equation that can key us to what direction things might actually been going. In early July Midway game filed bankruptcy proceedings and speculation of the franchise was in full twirl, for but the games and the movies.

Warner Bros. comes along and snags up the shambles of Midway (or, atleast its very few marketable assetslike MK) for 33 million. In perspective, the rights to the classic game franchise Tomb Raider was bought by Square Enix for 120 million. I don’t ever believe the TR franchise has been relevant to the industry or to gamers, past its dominant first release on the PC over a decade ago.

Interestingly enough, Warner Bros is also a movie production company. In fact they tend to make better movies than games (Lego Batman, F.E.A.R. 2). To add more mixture to the stew brewing, their own subsidiary New Line happen to have produced the two MK movies from the 90s, way back when.

Though it’s been painfully obvious to fans around the world that Threshold has done nothing with its part of ownership of the MK franchise, but that doesn’t stop them from suing everybody and wanting a piece of the pie. The Mortal Kombat Online News Feed, a network of which this site is proudly apart of, has a great article on the details of Threshold’s legal action amidst the buyout of Midways. Lawrence “D-Bag” Kasanoff claims on making the aliases of Liu Kang, Scorpion and Sonya Blade into recognizable named, and speculates there’s been 4 billion in revenue over the years. Keep hittin’ that purple stuff, Larry.

Aside from that debacle, the buyout went through and we are looking at new owners of the MK license. What will the next 10 years of rumors entail?

The gentlemen knew a thing or two about the series, movies, and gaming in general so I’m glad the subject of the movie (and various bad video game movies) came up, giving Ed a chance to answer some queries in a loose and partially non-politically correct medium.

Paraphrasing what was said, Ed basically mentioned that many scripts have come through Midway’s doors courtesy of Threshold’s free time, dialogues have broken out and he *mentioned* that a certain script HAD been picked, and that there *could* be discussion going on about shooting locations and preliminary scouting. No other news. I loved how one of the men described the project to be in ‘development hell’, citing that the project most likely doesn’t make it past the tables that guys in suits sit at over lunch. Ed did not dismiss this hypothesis.

To listen to the podcast yourself, click here to head straight to the post. Thanks for the heads up Movie Page listener Robert

Update: moviehole reports it in some monolithic wall of text.

The status of the film, as of today, is that “…the Producers are working out their deals with the studio and arranging their financing”, says the director, who helmed Steven Seagal’s “Into the Sun”.

mink says the project isn’t so much a sequel as it is a “re-envisioning(if that is a word) of the Mortal Kombat franchise from top to bottom. Todays audience is a savvy involved group so the film must be A plus plus in every area in order to capture the magic of the first film.

Though the IMDB has Christopher Lambert returning as Rayden, mink says casting hasn’t begun yet.

Though Drew McWeeny and Scott Swan wrote the original draft of the script, “the writing has been handled by the Producers and their writers at Threshold Studios in conjunction with Midway, of course.”

Read the full article here.

To me, it sounds like Threshold is going about it with a grain of rice [as they have been for nearly half of a decade now]. Although it is promising that the director seems to be interested in crafting a project that can be successful in today’s above average tier of sci-fi films.

In addition, Aint It Cool’s very own Moriarty [mentioned as an early script writer for the film] added a quick reaction to the news through his column on their site. Again, nothing new:

I haven’t had any contact with these producers for years now, and I have no idea what forward progress is being made or what script they’re using. I’ll know when everyone else does.

The full article for that is here. There you have it folks. Consider MK3 in its business stage still, with no casting and nothing else confirmed. In this stage a project/film is still definitely in Red-Light status; if the producers and studious do not think they can make money from it then it’s not going to be there.

A thanks goes out to MKO’s Justin Deering and long-time visitor Josh for the heads up.

Also expect to see the rest of the news archives uploaded. I probably only had 40% of the old news in the database.

There has been absolutely no news of the movie, so it is NOT coming out in 2007 and most likely will not see 2008 either despite many questions from readers.

As we know, Threshold cut New Line loose from the license somewhere around 2000. And apparently, since then, MK3 has gone through a mire of script rewrites and retoolings. Apparently they are still going through these today, claiming the complication of all parts involved (producers, writers, Threshold, Midway, and now the most recent rumored studio- Lionsgate) as the reason for all the delays.

A consistency in the past few years of MK3 news is that Mink is still the supposed director. In fact, the article claims that the director has been fielding questions at MK3’s IMDB page. If this is true, then God help us.

And finally, the writer cited an inside source named ‘Rayden’, as well as another unspecified one. Because of this, like always, this news is to be considered yet another wave in the endless that are bound to come and probably change it. To read the full article, click here. Thanks goes to Iyasu McFly for the heads up to the article.

“I got the bad news. I won’t be in the next MK. Apparently, Sub-Zero will be the new hero. How’d that come about? No body knows. As if my character never existed. The story supposedly takes place before Lui Kang’s time. A prequel of prequel…. I guess that’s why it’s taking this long for it to happen…. That’s show biz.”

“It is time to move on from MK but of the other hand, I wouldn’t hesitate to play Lui Kang again. And it wouldn’t be a step backward, it’s actually seeing Lui’s character grow into maybe one of the elder Gods. He definitely has earned it. Yeah, let the fans know. I hope it won’t disappointed them too much.”

These paragraphs are straight from Robin Shou’s (Liu Kang of the two Mortal Kombat movies) personal public relations assistant that were in regards to a fan-made FAQ that was sent to him. It seems to be disappointing news however that seems to sum up well what is happening with the movie. Like always, with a movie this fiscal, things are possible (or bound) to change. We thank Robin and his PR assistant and close friend of the MK3 Movie Page (Kelly, GirlTaz) for the information.

This is also a good time to point out that while I am getting regular E-mails with some bits of news, it’s disappointing to report that none of it is.. actual.. news. Guys, I know everyone is desperate for anything, but we’ve really seen enough of these leaky, random movie information sites reporting rumored dream-cast lists and synopses from daydreaming fans. Or Chris Casamassa doing constant interviews that divulge no real information. This is no longer news, it’s beating a dead horse (considering the current state the movie is in- the same state it has been for the past six years- absolutely questionable).

Expect the next update to this website to be something serious and profound from Threshold themselves regarding the existence and future of Mortal Kombat 3. We are currently finished with these rumors and dead-ends. It may take months, it may even take years. But Threshold is bound to crack sometime. I URGE EVERYONE TO WRITE, E-MAIL, TELEPHONE THRESHOLD AND DEMAND A STATUS REPORT ON THIS MOVIE. Their contact information is:

THRESHOLD ENTERTAINMENT
1649 11th Street, Santa Monica, CA 90404
Phone: (310) 452-8899
Fax: (310) 452 0736
E-mail:
Sales: sales@thethreshold.com
“Producer” of MK3: producer1@mortalkombat.com
Employment: jobs@thethreshold.com