Mortal Kombat: Rebirth

Thanks to tweets from my very own Lady Luck, Jeri Ryan, we know Mortal Kombat: Rebirth is a short directed by Kevin Tancharoen as a pitch to sell Warner Bros. on his vision for the 2013 film. Warner Bros. purchased the film rights to Mortal Kombat in July 2009 and has had Oren Uziel at work on a screenplay since January 2010. Ryan who played Sonya Blade for the short provided this last update on Twitter:

“I did it as a favor to a friend. No idea yet what WB’s reaction to it was. And I’m not sure how you can contact WB to push them to make it. But you guys are resourceful…! “

A good start would be watching the eight-minute YouTube video to increase its views (at the time of this post 867,000). Mortal Kombat: Rebirth is set in a modern day dystopia that attempts more realistic backgrounds for its characters who are headed to a criminal underground tournament.

If Tancharoen’s vision is accepted this will be the second time a short video garnered him a chance to direct something bigger. In 2007 Tancharoen directed a seven-minute behind-the-scenes look at what it’s like to be a dancer which led him to direct the TV series Dancelife.

You might recognize Jax (Michael Jai White) as the dude who played Spawn. Johnny Cage (Matt Mullins) is best known from his canceled TV series Kamen Rider: Dragon Knight and is a rare mixture of a martial arts champion and actor (like Robin Shou). Of course these actors the characters and the story aren’t guaranteed, but simply a vision of a possible future. Take a look:

Thanks to Poco for finding this story. Additional sources:

Kotaku: That Mortal Kombat Trailer? Jeri Ryan Explains
LatinoReview.com: Mortal Kombat Fans, This Is The Hard ‘R’ MK Movie You’ve Been Waiting For
IMDB bio: Kevin Tancharoen
SciFiPule.net: Warner Bros Buy Up Rights To Mortal Kombat