Sadly these guys can't even get their own stories straight. The Broken Road site and MKO has printed, the film is in pre-production but now James Wan said its in "early development." They're two different stages of the film-making process. Being in the biz myself, I can say this:

1. Development is the stage of film-making where the script is written and major "above-line" crew are formed - producers and a director. And money for production is raised so investors are sought. This is the stage James Wan is claiming. Which means this version of the film remains in development hell for 3 years. When it moves to preproduction that'll be huge news.

2. Pre-production. Location scouting, casting, other crews. In other words, we're not there yet despite Broken Roads site (in the about section) claims prepro.

3. Production. The film is made! To date, a third MK movie did allegedly start production around 2005 but was shut down due to Hurricane Katrina. That was also reported in Lights, Camera, Game Over but could have also used the older article about it, which puts it in speculative fiction category. If so the film fficially has been in development hell for about 20 years.

It is possible to move back and forth between stages but only linear, you can't theoretically go from development into production. So if they do go into production things could still fall apart.

I will also say that films don't take this long to get made if everyone is on track. So some higher-up is holding back and it's likely James Wan who's been focused on Aquaman, a much more valuable property than MK. Hollywood has treated MK like sleaze but with class so no one is rushing. And Kasanoff does alot with LEGO and theme parks. James Wans film has been in devhell for about 3 years. The lore is there. Jesus Christ Resident Evil has had how many movies and Tomber's now got a reboot. Not to mention Street Fighter has how many films and series produced after 1994? MK got Legacy 1 and 2, which I will always contend, was meant to be this generation's "The Journey Begins" aka a prequel to the new movie by Kevin T. I also recall a conversation I had with a stuntman from Hollywood... WB dicked Kevin around and isn't serious with making MK. And after that disastrous Legacy I feel we need to leave sleeping dogs lie so we don't get another crapshoot. Greg already admitted this "fake news" was based on early script drafts, MK should have never been penned with a "Cole Turner" in the first damn place.