While video games have become a hot property recently, studios have been trying to turn them into hit films for years. The recent resurgence, however, may mean one franchise is about to get a new sequel. One of the stars of the original Mortal Kombat, Christopher Lambert, says that the new film, currently in development, has an intriguing gimmick planned: inter-dimensional time travel.
Highlander star Christopher Lambert was the biggest name attached to the original Mortal Kombat film. While the movie was far from perfect, in the two decades since its release it has obtained a place of prominence among a field of generally dismal video game adaptations. While Lambert did not return for the less than stellar sequel, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, he tells Loaded that he is currently in talks to reprise his role for an upcoming third movie. The difference this time is that he likes the unique idea they're playing with for the premise. The plan is to make it a kind of time travel movie, and the twist sounds like it could make for some truly special action sequences.
We are going to be traveling through time but in a very special way. So imagine characters having a battle in the middle of London and then whoosh, you smash through a window and find yourself on the hood of a New York cab.
Christopher Lambert doesn't go into any details about how this time travel aspect would impact the story outside of the fight scenes, but as far as the fight scenes themselves go, this certainly sounds like it could be fun. While the Mortal Kombat game series has not included anything quite like this in the past, it's something that could be integrated without much difficulty.
One of the areas where fighting games have truly evolved over the years is in level design. It's now normal for one player to be able to throw their opponent through a wall into another part of the stage. All this movie is looking to do is make a drastic shift between the areas on either side of that wall; it would certainly create some interesting environments for the fights to take place.
A third Mortal Kombat movie has been in development for years, and while it's never completely died, it's also never seemed to gain any real momentum. Luckily, Christopher Lambert's comments imply that things might actually be moving forward. Last year, it was announced that James Wan was on board to produce the new film, which might have been the shot in the arm the franchise needed. It was also reported that the idea for the new film would be a "departure from the mythology" of the series, so it's likely this time travel idea is what was being referred to.
What do you think of this concept for a new Mortal Kombat movie? While we're at it, what do you think of Christopher Lambert returning to the franchise? Of course, none of that matters nearly as much as who puts together the soundtrack.
