'Mortal Kombat' reboot release date, news: upcoming film finds its director

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A promotional image for "Mortal Kombat XL." A "Mortal Kombat" movie reboot is being developed by New Line Cinema.

While a lot of film adaptations of some of the most popular and best-selling books and novels achieved box office success, the same cannot be said about those films inspired by a video game title. But it is fair to say that such a trend could see some change in the upcoming months with the rumored development of a "Mortal Kombat" film adaptation.

This isn't actually the first "Mortal Kombat" film to try its luck on the big screen since the first one took the risk back in 1995, with Paul W.S. Anderson directing. Although the film did not receive a positive feedback from critics, it still managed to earn around $122 million. The director of that film is no stranger to video game adaptations as he was later on tapped to direct the "Resident Evil" series of films based on the popular video game.

The "Mortal Kombat" reboot has long been planned by New Line Cinema, and in fact, the project was first announced way back in 2011. Quite intriguingly, it took the film studio five years to finally find the director who they think is the best to handle the big reboot.

First reported by Variety, the upcoming film will be directed by the relatively unknown Australian director, Simon McQuoid. According to the report, McQuoid is not a household name in movie directing, but he is well-known in circles for helming commercials, most notably for big brands like Samsung, PlayStation, Dr. Pepper, and Duracell.

Nonetheless, McQuoid will still be carrying a very big responsibility considering that it will be his very first feature film, Cinema Blend reports. It means that he will have to bring his A-game for a film that is projected to be a big-budget flick considering that New Line Cinema is involved and that it has been six years in the making, or at least in the planning stage.

There still is no official release date or even details on when filming begins, but the fact that a director has been chosen means that it likely will start production next year.