Is it 1994 all over again, because Mortal Kombat seems more popular in the last three days than it’s been in the last 10 years. Today we saw the trailer for thenext MK game, which looks to return the serious to the comical violence of old. And while that’s kept us in a blood-soaked tizzy, the excitement really began withthis video, cryptically released on YouTube as Mortal Kombat Rebirth two days ago. Slowly but surely the truth trickled out on what exactly this was, but only now has film siteCollidergotten the whole story from the video’s director, Kevin Tancharoen.
The short version is that he made this for around $7,500 on his own, without telling the game makers or the people who currently own the films rights, making this technically a fan film, if a very professional one. Though he did his best with special effects within his means, the down to earth nature helped him meet his vision within the budget. He was able to get actor friends to come in and appear in it, including well known thespians Jeri Ryan and Michael Jai White, the latter of which he says he definitely wants back for the feature film, were it to happen.
Kevin feels pretty great about the positive response and of course hopes to spin this project that he worked on for a couple months into a real job. When asked about what other characters he’d use, he was quick to say he didn’t want to use too many and confuse the audience, but Liu Kang, who was left out of the vid, would certainly be involved. And obviously he wants it to be an R-rated film, mostly because he understands that most fans who grew up loving the games are adults now.
One of the last interesting notes was that the director has never really done an action film before, but has lots of experience with choreographing things, just not fight scenes. He not only made the truly classic You Got Served and the recent remake of Fame, he also worked on dance routines for Madonna and Britney Spears. Don’t scoff at that less-than M-rated background, as the methods formaking a dance or a fight work on film are surprisingly similar. Again, you can read the whole thinghereand cross your fingers that Hollywood pays attention to the great job Kevin Tancharoen did.
Jun 10, 2010
