Mortal Kombat Reborn on the Web

Several months ago director Kevin Tancharoen (Fame remake) posted an eight minute demo he wrote, directed, produced on his own to show Warner Brothers what he could do, and convince them to fund his vision for a new Mortal Kombat movie.

Tanchareon's take is darker and more visceral, jettisoning the more fanciful and mystical aspects of the game for a more stylized hyper-reality approach. The short features Michael Jai White (Spawn, Black Dynamite, The Dark Knight) as a hardboiled police detective, Captain Jackson "Jax" Briggs, and Jeri Ryan as his lieutenant, Sonya Blade, and posits Baraka and Reptile as crazed psycho killers instead of otherworldly beings.

The visual look and atmosphere is reminiscent of bleach bypass look of films like David Fincher's Se7en. Dark and brooding with lots of deep shadows and muted, almost sepia tone colors. The fight choreography by Larnell Stovall is grounded and more brutal. There are ample amounts of gore. The tone is definitely R, not PG-13.

After seeing it's immense success online, garnering over 10,000,000 views worlwide, Warner Premiere recently announced that it will be sanctioning Tancharoen's vision in the form of a Mortal Kombat web series. The series will be written by Kevin Tancharoen, Aaron Helbing and Todd Helbing, and available online this spring from Warner Bros. In addition actors Jeri Ryan and Micheal Jai White will be reprising their roles from the original short. Digital Distribution, the “Mortal Kombat” digital new media series is an anthology of multiple live action shorts. Each episode will provide never-before-revealed insights into characters featured in the upcoming videogame as well as the game’s universe.