The Mortal Kombat series is infamous for its obscenely gory finisher moves, and it sounds like the new Warner Bros movie adaptation won’t be pulling any punches.
The Mortal Kombat movie is set to release in April on HBO Max and will be one of the first video game movie adaptations to sport the coveted R rating. The MPAA [Motion Picture Association of America] lists movies with an R rating as including harsh language, intense graphic violence. Those two things are certainly required for any adaptation of Mortal Kombat.
“Kali Ma!”
In an interview with SFX magazine [via GamesRadar], the movie’s director, Simon McQuoid speaks about how they have approached adapting the violent nature of Mortal Kombat for the silver screen.
McQuoid says: “We wanted to push the [blood, gore and fatalities] right to the limit”.
One of the examples he gives is that a character will have their heart ripped right out from their chest. Think Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom but it much more detail.
McQuaid explains that there is a fine line to walk to ensure the movie works best for everyone. “Obviously, there’s a point where the film becomes unreleasable if you push it too far, and that would be a very unwise return on investment for the studio,” he explains.
“But from day one it’s been, ‘Okay, we’re doing this and we’re going to do it properly.’”
In a previous interview with IGN, McQuoid also discussed the violence on show in the fight sequences. He said: “We didn’t have to hold back on the fights. If there was a fight going on, someone got stamped through the head, blood probably would burst out the back, and we could do that.
“New Line deserves a lot of credit because they always wanted to do it justice as well.” [via IGN]
Producer Todd Garner also told SFX that creating an R-Rated rendition of Mortal Kombat was always the plan from the get-go. Apparently, when he approached Warner Bros about whether the new movie would be R-Rated, they replied: “There’s no other way.”
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[Featured Image Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures]