James Wan Has Reportedly Signed On To Produce The MORTAL KOMBAT Movie Reboot

Back in October of last year, Warner Bros. and its digital production arm, Blue Ribbon Content, announced the production of a third installation of hit webseries Mortal Kombat Legacy which has taken a foothold within the fanbase. It's the only other development in anything Mortal Kombat since Kevin Tancharoen blessed fans with an amazing shortfilm that went viral in 2010 prior to what sounded like promising news for a glorious return to feature film territory since 1995 and 1997 from New Line Cinema. However, with Warner Bros. staking its claim with Tancharoen helming Mortal Kombat Legacy in 2011, news was slow to come regarding anything film related and by the second season in 2013, it was all for naught as Tancharoen, after two years of getting followed and trolled obsessively by fans pining for the best of what should have come by now for a movie and didn't, left the director's seat.

As it stands, industry stunt professional and coordinator Garrett Warren has been at the forefront of the upcoming season to which Tancharoen returned in some capacity and that's all we've had thusfar without any luck for a film. That was of course until the last twenty four hours when it was made public via The Tracking Board that Furious Seven helmer James Wan has reportedly signed on to produce the long-awaited Mortal Kombat feature film. The script itself has since been penned by Oren Uziel who worked closely with Tancharoen on the initial script, in addition to The Expendables and Godzilla scribe Dave Callahan while the plot itself will generally focus on a protagonist who realizes his potential when he gets caught in a cross-dimensional battle that forces that obligates him in saving the world by winning the legendary, brutal, and fatal tournament.

It sounds pretty similar to earlier iterations and likely with the approach that game franchise protagonist and eventual anti-hero, Liu Kang (previously played on screen by Robin Shou and Brian Tee) may lead the new movie as well with a new actor. Following season two and leading up to season three of the titular webseries, co-star Casper Van Dien had been heavily into the insistence that he'll reprise his role as disenfranchised movie star Johnny Cage while actor Michael Jai White has since been the chosen fan favorite to play bio-infused mechanical-armed soldier, Jax, after putting his stamp on the character in the 2010 shortfilm as well as the first season opposite late action star, actor Darren Shahlavi who portrayed the villainous Kano. Moreover, as a noteworthy mention, Warren had also gone public with fans on Twitter that if he were to cast anyone in the role of decrepid and masked hooksword-wielding kombatant, Kabal in a version of Mortal Kombat, it would be actor Bren Foster who is currently in Australia filming sci-fi thriller, SFv1 with Expendables 3 co-star Kellan Lutz.

Currently it is not known if whether or not the series will tie into the now upcoming film, and despite all these developments, other matters of official news need confirming at this point besides casting, including who will direct. As far as any of us know, Tancharoen isn't doing it, so unless things turn around, so this is all that we're left with until then or a new director is announced. For now, the news of Wan's interest in partaking in such an endeavor is a promising one, particularly in part with his most recent directorial contribution to Universal Pictures's historical gross success with Furious Seven in April, prior to landing Aquaman with Warner & DC, and Robotech for Sony back in June.

This is the same director who, before Furious Seven, landed successes in two horror franchises, Insidious and The Conjuring, in addition to his current attachment to producing Saw VIII, long after earning praise for helming the 2007 revenge flick, Death Sentence, starring Kevin Bacon. This is someone who clearly has some truly inspiring ideas on how to flesh out the best of a Mortal Kombat movie, and with the right director, this one could very much be historical and worthy of fan approval and the prospects of a sequel.

It's definitely a great time for Warner Bros. to move forward with some news about this movie since the film was announced in 2011. And with Wan on board, the news breathes new life to fans as it appears the long-awaited Mortal Kombat film reboot is slowly and gracefully recovering from its own fatality. Crazy huh?

Stay tuned for more info.