James Wan's Mortal Kombat Reboot Targets September Shoot Date

The James Wan-produced Mortal Kombat reboot is gearing up for production in Australia this fall.

The long-awaited reboot of the Mortal Kombat franchise is, at long last, happening and we now know when it's going to begin shooting. Mega-producer James Wan, known best as the creator of Saw and the director of The Conjuring movies and Aquaman, has been attached to produce the reboot for some time, and we recently learned that Warner Bros. has buckled down and gotten serious about making it happen. Now, we have word that cameras will begin rolling on the movie this fall in Australia.

According to a new report, Mortal Kombat will begin filming on September 16. This lines up with a previous announcement from earlier this month when it was revealed that Warner Bros. will be making use of Australia's tax incentives and local crews in order to bring the video game to life on the big screen for modern audiences. At that time, it was said pre-production would be getting underway by the end of the month. With that in mind, a fall start date makes a lot of sense, as it gives them enough time to get everything ready. After several years of wondering and hoping, it looks like this project is really getting off the ground.

Just to give some idea of how long this movie has been kicking around, James Wan first became attached to produce the thing back in August 2015. Simon McQuoid, who is an award-winning commercial director, was brought on in November 2016 and will make his feature directorial debut. Prior to their involvement, Kevin Tancharoen, who made two webseries centered around the video game, had been attached but departed back in 2013. Point being, this is something Warner Bros. has wanted to do for a very long time and, for whatever reason, it seems they've finally cracked it.

This is far from the first time the ultraviolent fighting game will make its way to Hollywood. Mortal Kombat was actually one of the very first live-action video game movies ever produced when it was released in 1995. Though not a critical success by any stretch, the movie was financially successful, earning $122 million worldwide. A sequel, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, was released in 1997. However, it was far less successful, earning just $51 million. And that has pretty much been that for more than 20 years. Unfortunately, in that time, generally speaking, video game movies haven't gotten much better. Though, movies like Rampage and Detective Pikachu have taken huge steps in the right direction.

A new video game, Mortal Kombat 11, was released earlier this year to generally positive reviews and early commercial success. To date, the franchise has sold more than 35 million units and has garnered billions in revenue. For the time being, there is no word on who will be cast, nor is it clear exactly which characters from the long-running video game series will be utilized. We'll be sure to keep you posted as any further details on the project are made available. Mortal Kombat is set to hit theaters on March 5, 2021. This news was previously reported by Geeks Worldwide.