What comes to your mind when I say “Baraka?” Those aggressive fish with teeth? Close, but go brush up on your ichthyology. I am, of course, referring to the terrifying race of creatures from one corner of the Netherrealm from Mortal Kombat that we all know and love.
That semi-recently confirmed film adaptation is really picking up steam lately, with the casting of Sub-Zero. And now, to please fans even further, it’s finally been locked-in that the pic will be the first R-rated Mortal Kombat movie, and that fatalities will also feature in it.
The film’s writer, Greg Russo, confirmed all of this on Twitter with a very giddy post. Per the first-time screenwriter, the project, as it’s being written, will be rated R. He was also slyly coy but did confirm that the theatrical finishing moves that made the games famous will be in the pic, but he also says that he won’t reveal which ones will make an appearance. Color us intrigued.
Since it's already been stated by other members of the team, I'm gonna put this one to bed. MK WILL be R-Rated and for the first time EVER, FATALITIES will FINALLY be on the big screen (and no I'm not gonna say which ones) You'll just have to wait for the movie & see!!! 😉 pic.twitter.com/aVTewH4t28
— Greg Russo (@WriterRusso) July 12, 2019
Granted, take all of this with a grain of salt, as the film hasn’t even started shooting yet. The studio could always change their mind and decide that it’d be more profitable to make this yet another PG-13 distillation of a series known for its gratuitous violence. Also, we need to keep in mind that this guy, this other sub-Russo, is literally a first-timer.
After all, his Twitter is very new, and his bio states that he’s writing tons of video game adaptations currently, such as a F.E.A.R. movie, that mystical Saints Row pic that’ll never come out, and the Resident Evil reboot. That’s quite the slate for a guy who has, genuinely, never written anything before.
Also, the director, Simon McQuoid, is a first-timer as well. He comes from the land of commercials, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Remember Mystery Men? That was made by a guy coming right off commercial work, too. While not the best film ever, it had a distinct enough vision to stand out among a lot of late 90’s action-comedies.
So, maybe McQuoid can do something fun with this deadly fighting tournament? In any case, we won’t see the pic until at least 2021, so a lot could change between then and now, but in the meantime, we can always just hum the Mortal Kombat theme over and over again to keep us busy. Yeah, that should work.