The Hollywood Reporter brings word that Joe Taslim will be starring as Sub-Zero in New Line’s Mortal Kombat live-action adaptation of the popular video game. Taslim is an actor and martial artist who has previously appeared in Fast & Furious 6, Star Trek beyond, Hit & Run, and the TV series Warrior.
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The film, which will be directed by Simon McQuoid in his debut on a script from Greg Russo, will head to the down under country of Australia, producer James Wan’s homeland, to begin shooting sometime towards the end of the year.
“The key here is to try and do it right,” Wan previously said about the film. “I don’t want to rush into it. So right now, we’re just trying to take our time to make sure it’s heading in the right direction. I think that’s more important than trying to rush through it and pump up something that no one likes. I love the characters. I think they’re such colorful characters. It’s such an amazing take on, basically, Enter the Dragon. It’s that fantasy version, the video game version, of Enter the Dragon.”
The first video game was developed by Midway Games and released in 1992. The storyline sees a diverse range of fighters hailing from eighteen different realms become pitted against one another in an epic tournament. Quite a few sequels followed the original game with the most recent, Mortal Kombat 11, being released last month.
Two Mortal Kombat movies have already been released. The first, simply titled Mortal Kombat, was directed by Paul W.S. Anderson and saw release in 1995. It was followed two years later with a sequel, Annihilation, which also paved the way for two television series: the animated Defenders of the Realm and the live-action Konquest. Two web series have been released based on the property as well from director Kevin Tancharoen.
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The new Mortal Kombat movie will follow a male protagonist who becomes drawn into the interdimensional tournament, and who begins to realize his true potential as a result of the experience.
Wan and his Atomic Monster banner will produce along with Todd Garner. Larry Kasanoff, E. Bennett Walsh, Michael Clear, and Sean Robins are executive producing.
The film, which is set to hit theaters on March 5, 2021, will go head-to-head with Sony’s upcoming film adaptation of the classic Mattel toy and cartoon franchise Masters of the Universe, an untitled Universal Pictures Event Film and Fox’s family animated adventure Nimona.
