Movie

Update:

Kevin Tancharoen, director of the Mortal Kombat Rebirth viral trailer has revealed the origins of the short film as well as the direction he’d take a feature length version – should he be given the chance. Check out the new details HERE.

Early this morning, a mysterious trailer for an unannounced project appeared on YouTube – posted under the title Mortal Kombat Rebirth.

The trailer is over seven minutes long and features high production values – including performances by Michael Jai White as Jackson “Jax” Briggs and Jeri Ryan as Sonya.

It’s unclear at this point whether the viral trailer will ultimately lead us to a new Mortal Kombat film or a new video game installment. However, given the real-world spin, I’d say we’re looking at a new film.

Check out the Mortal Kombat Rebirth trailer after the jump:

Looks a bit too ambitious for a fan-made trailer, right?

You might remember that Warner Bros. was moving forward on a Mortal Kombat reboot – with writer Oren Uziel already attached to pen the screenplay. Though, shortly thereafter, Warner Bros. was sued by Threshold Entertainment, who apparently bought the rights to the third Mortal Kombat film installment – before Warner Bros. purchased Midway (and subsequently their IPs).

Either way, it seems clear that someone is making a new Mortal Kombat film. The real-world angle of the trailer (which features Baraka as a self-mutilating serial killer and Reptile suffering from a genetic disorder) fits the recent film-making trend of wooing audiences with less-fantasy driven premises – focusing on grittier, more realistic, interpretations.

In addition, it’s difficult to imagine how this “realistic” vision of Mortal Kombat could possibly translate into an enjoyable gameplay experience – given that the franchise was built on bicycles kicks, thunder Gods, fireballs, alternate realms, and over-the-top fatalities. If Mortal Kombat Rebirth points to a video game – how could that video-game capitalize on previous Mortal Kombat games with such a straight-forward approach? Not to mention, how that straight-forward approach would pretty much castrate the game’s source mechanics.

Personally, after watching the trailer, I’m really hoping for a new Mortal Kombat film – a strange thing to say, considering the quality of most video game films. The rivalry between Scorpion and Sub-Zero was one of the more compelling aspects of the Mortal Kombatmythology – and the Rebirth plot-line appears to put that rivalry front and center.

Regardless, one thing is clear – given the upcoming E3 conference in Los Angeles, we’ll certainly have more info soon as to which facet of the Mortal Kombat franchise will be getting a “rebirth.”