'Mortal Kombat' movie release date, news and updates: Film finds a new director

NetherRealm's "Mortal Kombat X" is said to be the best-selling game of the franchise to date, and reports are going around that New Line Cinemas is planning on rebooting the "Mortal Kombat" movie series. The film has recently found its director.

Variety reports that Australian director Simon McQuiod has signed on to helm the movie. Though he hasn't worked on a big-budget film himself, McQuiod has been attached to several successful ad campaigns for Playstation, Beats by Dre, and the "Halo" franchise.

The 1995 "Mortal Kombat" movie was considered to be a huge success in the box office, grossing over $70 million despite being slammed by critics. The follow-up movie "Mortal Kombat: Annihilation," was a huge flop and killed any hopes for future films in the franchise.

The franchise was only considered for revival when a web series called "Mortal Kombat: Legacy" was released online. "Legacy" was a project of Warner Bros. Digital and it was run by then Warner Bros. CEO and chairman Kevin Tsujihara.

Aside from McQuiod who is attached to direct the reboot, the new "Mortal Kombat" movie also has "Aquaman" director James Wan on board to produce. The latest version of the script is said to be written by Greg Russo.

The original "Mortal Kombat" movie has characters Liu Kang (Robin Shou), Johnny Cage (Linden Ashby), and Sonya Blade (Bridgette Wilson-Sampras) being transported to a mysterious island where they were forced to fight for their lives in "Mortal Kombat." Along for the ride was their mentor Rayden (Christopher Lambert) the Thunder God. The team must come together and defeat Shang Tsung (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa). There were also appearances from classic "MK" characters like Kano (Trevor Goddard), Scorpion (Chris Casamassa), Sub-Zero (Francois Petit) and Reptile (Keith Cooke).

No official release date has been announced for the "Mortal Kombat" reboot.