Mortal Kombat Movie Taps New Director

Posted at 11/19/2016 08:38 PM EST by

More than a year after reports Furious 7 director James Wan would step in to produce: The Mortal Kombat movie may have found its director!

Variety reports Australian director Simon McQuoid is in talks to make his international feature film debut with the long anticipated video game adaptation.

The acclaimed advertising director is best known for commercial work, producing ads for: PlayStation, Xbox, HP, Beats by Dre, Samsung, Logitech, Nissan and Duracell [embedded below], along with other high profile brands. Much of McQuoid's work features effects work and slick production - skills perfectly suited to bringing the world of Mortal Kombat to life!

Variety also reports Greg Russo is the most recent writer to draft a script. Michael Clear (Atomic Monster), Todd Garner & Jeremy Stein (Broken Road) will join Wan as producers. Lawrence Kasanoff will executive produce.

Kasanoff is best remembered for grandfathering Mortal Kombat's original assault on the box office in 1995. His gamble on director Paul WS Anderson delivered a breakout hit in his first American feature. Kasanoff's Threshold Entertainment was also responsible for a less successful 1997 sequel (Annihilation), as well as two television series.

Little is known about the course of this new Mortal Kombat feature film, but all indications suggest it's the most likely push to bring the franchise back to the big screen to produce results. Representation of the material will become the biggest concern for fans, but as the deviant Mortal Kombat: Legacy webseries fades into obscurity, fans have at least some reasons to remain hopeful.

In August, [James] Wan expressed his appreciation for the source material: "... They ended up creating such interesting characters and I think that is such a cool world to explore. This really mythical, bigger world that lives on another dimension on top of ours." Wan is getting familiar with adapting big name universes for Warner Brothers. He's currently directing Aquaman - the DC Comics superhero appearing in Injustice 2.

What do you want to see from a Mortal Kombat movie? Register to share your thoughts on this and other products on the Media & Merchandise forum! Support the kommunity by liking & sharing this and other stories via @MK_Online & Facebook. Special thanks to MK Online User Poasty-Guy for submitting a news lead.