Presently, not much is known about the impending Mortal Kombat film, but every so often new bits of information rise to the fore. The latest bit concerns tone, which fans of the franchise may worry over considering MK’s last couple of big screen outings. The film’s scribe, Greg Russo, previously confirmed the creative team is shooting for an R-rating. And it seems he’s doubling down, recently likening the movie’s tone to that of the Deadpool films starring Ryan Reynolds.
During an interview with Comicbook.com, Russo addressed how the Mortal Kombat reboot is being tackled from a tone standpoint. For one, fans should expect it to very much adhere to what they’re familiar with across the game series. The violence and dark humor will indeed be on display. However, the more serious aspects often nestled within the franchise’s stories will also receive ample attention. Russo explained,
We wanted to be somewhat truthful with the tone of the game. So if you played the games, there are real stakes, there’s real emotion behind what the characters are going through but at the same time, it’s really fun. I mean Mortal Kombat‘s always been very tongue-in-cheek in how it approaches whether it’s kind of over the top violence or just kind of some of the insane story ideas that they come up with. I mean there’s always been this kind of fun nature to it.
In trying to better comprehend Mortal Kombat’s special brand of entertainment, the film’s creatives needed something in their own medium with which to compare. Deadpool could not be a more obvious choice. According to Russo,
We looked at the games and then we also were looking at some film comps to compare our tone to. And I think things like Deadpool popped up and we’re like, we really like the tone of that. You know, it’s got some great humor in there, but if you kind of take the humor out of it, it’s got real characters, like really emotional stakes behind what the characters are going through. So that was something that we looked at for the tone of this. It’ll be fun, but it’ll also be obviously real stakes, real characters, real emotion.
Commercial director Simon McQuoid will direct the James Wan-produced project, which is set to begin shooting in South Australia later in the year. Thus far, the only actor attached to the movie reboot is The Raid’s Joe Taslim, who will play Sub-Zero. Other classic characters supposedly on tap to appear include Jax, Kano, Liu Kang, and Sony Blade.
There’s quite the wait ahead to see how exactly it all pans out. Currently, the Mortal Kombat film is slated for a theatrical release on March 5, 2021. Filming should begin in the coming months,
[Source: Comicbook.com]
