\n http://www.trmk.org The digital age of movies has arrived. With Internet video services streaming movies directly to TVs, physical media such as DVDs and Blu-ray Discs are becoming less of a factor. The true value in these streaming services is that they bring out of print or poorly distributed movies to a much greater audience. Arriving fashionably late to this game is the video game cult-classic Mortal Kombat. Netflix has added Mortal Kombat to it's ever growing Watch Instantly catalog of streaming movies to your computer or TV. If you're a subscriber, you're a mere few clicks away from watching one of the biggest movies of 1995 and arguably one of the better video game movie adaptations. Have you recently re-watched the Mortal Kombat movie? Let us know if it has withstood the test of time and was as good as you remembered.... http://www.trmk.org/news/12865/netflix_adds_mortal_kombat_to_watch_instantly_catalog.html Fri, 05 Mar 2010 09:09:28 CST http://www.trmk.org/news/12865/netflix_adds_mortal_kombat_to_watch_instantly_catalog.html The Mortal Kombat Development team has been working hard on Mortal Kombat 9 for over a year now. A big part of the development of the game is getting the cinematic scenes together for the game. If Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe is any indication of what the assembled team is capable of, I expect the cinematics to be top notch in the next game. To develop the cinematic scenes they have certain actors do the voices for the characters and then they have another set of actors actually act out the motions to the previously recorded voices. Some may do both, but the two point process is used to get the performances captured just as the director wants. As this work has been progressing some unintentional casting leaks have been made. First last month it was discovered that voice actress Dana Lyn Baron noted on her blog that she reprised her role as the voice of Sonya Blade for Mortal Kombat 9. That bit of text has since been removed, probably at the request of Warner Bros, but the Google cac... http://www.trmk.org/news/12862/mortal_kombat_9_kasting_update_april_announcement.html Thu, 04 Mar 2010 11:11:29 CST http://www.trmk.org/news/12862/mortal_kombat_9_kasting_update_april_announcement.html One thing that always puzzled me since the acquisition of Midway Games by WB Games is that the Chicago studio, home of the Mortal Kombat team, was the only studio to not have some official name and website to call home beyond the generic WB Games Chicago title. The other Midway studio that Warners purchased in Seattle retook it's old name of Surreal Software. As well the two other studios that Warners purchased that were not part of Midway also retain their old names: Snowblind Studios and Monolith Productions. Most development teams have some form of official name across the industry, and beyond being called "The MK Team" they haven't had some official title. Then today I noticed a new website that went up recently, WBGamesJobs.com. What I found interesting was that it features the Mortal Kombat Dragon logo promiently on the page along with the other studio logos. Also of note is that all the job listings on the site name the studios the listing belongs to, with exception ... http://www.trmk.org/news/12858/could_wb_games_chicago_get_a_mortal_kombat_rebranding.html Wed, 03 Mar 2010 11:11:27 CST http://www.trmk.org/news/12858/could_wb_games_chicago_get_a_mortal_kombat_rebranding.html Fifteen years ago this week, before TRMK existed, I wrote my first video game guide, a not so good FAQ for Mortal Kombat 3. If you want to read more about my history with MK, I wrote a longer post about the past fifteen years over at my personal blog Infinite Shamrock. Here's an excerpt I feel that is relevant to TRMK readers: When Mortal Kombat 4 began testing around Chicago in 1997, I joined up with friends who ran the website The Realm of Mortal Kombat. I’ve been working on covering all Mortal Kombat games for TRMK ever since. We are the longest running Mortal Kombat website still in existence. We to this day are still trying to continue to help fans in the “Kommunity” as well as we can. It’s not easy to do right along side a real job, but I will continue to do this as long as I believe I’m contributing in some form or another. We’re currently anticipating the release of Mortal Kombat 9 which is rumored to be coming some... http://www.trmk.org/news/12847/mccarrons_15th_years_of_kombat_kontest.html Thu, 18 Feb 2010 05:05:32 CST http://www.trmk.org/news/12847/mccarrons_15th_years_of_kombat_kontest.html As we predicted last month, film producer Larry Kasanoff and his company Threshold Entertainment filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Mortal Kombat owners Warner Bros. Kasanoff is still claiming to hold legal rights to the Mortal Kombat movie franchise and wants involvement in the development of the rumored third feature film. This is a brief rundown of the lawsuit thanks to The Wrap The lawsuit states that Warners has "failed to work with Threshold in the development and production of the third 'Mortal Kombat' film," and has avoided communication with the Connecticut-based company, which has offices in Santa Monica. In late January, reports surfaced that a "Mortal Kombat" reboot by Warners was under way, including the hiring of a new screenwriter. I have a feeling this case will not be going away anytime soon, stay tuned for future developments.... http://www.trmk.org/news/12846/threshold_still_claims_mortal_kombat_rights_sues_wb.html Wed, 17 Feb 2010 04:04:15 CST http://www.trmk.org/news/12846/threshold_still_claims_mortal_kombat_rights_sues_wb.html Kotaku is reporting that all the former Midway Games titles like Smash TV and Robotron on Xbox Live Arcade have been pulled down overnight. Included in this is the very popular port of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. We're not sure if this is temporary, or if these titles are gone for good just yet. The game still has it's Xbox.com game detail page. At this point we're not sure if you'd be able to download your purchased games again, which is the case of previous titles when removed for poor performance. Since that reason for removal usually centers on the game not selling well, it that doesn't appear to be the case in this matter. Also some people over at CheapAssGamer noticed that you can still buy the codes for the game on Amazon, but that is not a promise that you will still get the game. Also of note that the Midway titles, including Mortal Kombat II, are still available on the PlayStation Network. We're not sure if the same thing will happen there or not, but in case if you still ... http://www.trmk.org/news/12845/midway_xbox_live_arcade_titles_removed_including_umk3_updated.html Wed, 17 Feb 2010 09:09:25 CST http://www.trmk.org/news/12845/midway_xbox_live_arcade_titles_removed_including_umk3_updated.html Thanks to our eagle eyed "Kanadian" reader, Umon Daisuke, we have discovered that the Mortal Kombat films are coming to Blu-ray finally on March 23rd, 2010. There is bad news though, as it'll be sold in Canada only via the distribution company Alliance which is known for fast Blu-ray releases with no extra features. So while the movie itself may be all you get, it should look far better than the previous DVD release from 1997 when DVD was still a new technology and was inferior quality wise to the superior Laserdisc release. Don't despair fans, there is good news, as any diehard Mortal Kombat fan in the US can order the movie from Canada and play it here in the US with no problems on their Blu-ray player of choice! Those interested can pre-order your copies today from Amazon's Canadan branch Amazon.ca and have them shipped here for around $27 US Dollars each. Mortal Kombat Blu-ray @ Amazon.ca Mortal Kombat Annihilation Blu-ray @ Amazon.ca We have pre-ordered the first ... http://www.trmk.org/news/12843/mortal_kombat_movies_go_blu_in_march_for_kanadians.html Tue, 16 Feb 2010 01:01:26 CST http://www.trmk.org/news/12843/mortal_kombat_movies_go_blu_in_march_for_kanadians.html It feels like the year 2010 just started, but January is about to come to a close. It's been fairly quiet in the MK world until this week with a few little tidbits we'd like to share with you. Earlier this month MK Universe noticed that one of the MK Team's PSN accounts was noticed connected to the PSN Network while play testing a build of MK9. Some have assumed it was Ed's PSN account because of the word "Noob" in it, but in fact it was one of the many public accounts created for the "Fight the Developers" night from a year ago. These accounts have been fairly dormant since then, so either this was a planned "leak" or an accident on the part of one of the game's developers. Also some more rumors of a new MK Movie has been floating around again. This time the new owners of the Mortal Kombat franchise, Warner Bros is in the middle of the latest rumors. Bloody Disgusting is reporting that WB recruited budding screenwriter Oren Uziel to write a reboot ... http://www.trmk.org/news/12829/news_recap_mk9_in_testing_and_mk_movie_reboot.html Tue, 26 Jan 2010 10:10:49 CST http://www.trmk.org/news/12829/news_recap_mk9_in_testing_and_mk_movie_reboot.html News on the Mortal Kombat 9 front has been quiet for a while. The team is hard at work now that things have settled down after the Warner Bros acquisition was completed. They have been actively hiring team members to fill out the development studio since summer. We don't expect the silence to last for too much longer as the hype machine is likely to start rolling up soon as the release is coming! Recently we've been hearing various murmurings that the Mortal Kombat Team has a set timeframe for Mortal Kombat 9 already. All signs appear to be pointing towards the team targeting to have the game shipped and in our hands by Christmas 2010! We haven't heard a concrete release date at this time, but we know for sure that's the internal project timeframe is to have it released just in time for Christmas. Fans around the world better be nice next year if you are anticipating Santa to put a copy of Mortal Kombat 9 in your stockings a year from now! So you don't want to be getting on Santa... http://www.trmk.org/news/12794/santa_to_deliver_mortal_kombat_9_on_christmas_2010.html Fri, 04 Dec 2009 11:11:45 CST http://www.trmk.org/news/12794/santa_to_deliver_mortal_kombat_9_on_christmas_2010.html The humor website College Humor has set the bar high for those making Mortal Kombat parodies. In this hilarious video, they break down how unfair the Mortal Kombat "Tournament" is. I don't want to say much more to spoil it, so just watch it below. See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor. Do you agree or disagree that this is one of the funniest MK parody videos yet? Go and discuss it in the comments as we'd like to know what you think.... http://www.trmk.org/news/12793/mortal_kombats_tournament_is_unfair.html Thu, 03 Dec 2009 11:11:37 CST http://www.trmk.org/news/12793/mortal_kombats_tournament_is_unfair.html This week's Mortal Movie Monday featured presentation is another much older video from the early years of Mortal Kombat. It's a tour of the Williams/Bally pinball factory along with the Midway game development studios from the long running WTTW Chicago series Wild Chicago. They stop by to talk to series creators Ed Boon and John Tobias just after the development of Mortal Kombat had wrapped or was about complete. Lots of great history is to be found in this rare look into the past of Mortal Kombat and Midway Games. Thanks to @OriginalRazer on Twitter for suggesting us the video. Come back next Mortal Movie Monday for another great video. We're always looking for great clips to showcase, so don't forget to suggest us a future video to be featured.... http://www.trmk.org/news/12715/mmm_tour_of_williams_bally_midway_from_1992.html Mon, 31 Aug 2009 08:08:08 CST http://www.trmk.org/news/12715/mmm_tour_of_williams_bally_midway_from_1992.html This week some proof of a cancelled sequel to fan favorite Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks was discovered. The details found the personal website of a Matthew Doyle, a former Midway Los Angeles employee, who posted some level design concept from a Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks 2, which was marked as cancelled. Click to Enlarge When FDMK questioned him about the title, Matthew said that the game was cancelled early on his tenure at the company, and at the time was working under the codename of Fire and Ice because of the use of Scorpion and Sub-Zero. Matthew Doyle: It was canceled within a few weeks of my arriving at Midway. I don't have anything else to show you unfortunately. Half the studio was laid off, and new management was brought in. Then we started work on TNA Wrestling. A prototype level was built, but that was it. A few design docs were worked on, and a few characters were made in 3D - Scorpion and Subzero. The game was codenamed Fire & Ice - as those two c... http://www.trmk.org/news/12706/cancelled_mortal_kombat_adventure_game_details.html Tue, 18 Aug 2009 10:10:48 CST http://www.trmk.org/news/12706/cancelled_mortal_kombat_adventure_game_details.html This week's Mortal Movie Monday featured presentation is a bonus video from the game Mortal Kombat Armageddon. In the video you see the audio team at Midway putting together sound effects and voices for the game Mortal Kombat Armageddon with the help of many various other employees at the studio. We actually found this video on an old backup drive earlier today, hense the older TRMK logo, but figured it would be a perfect video for this week's feature. Come back next Mortal Movie Monday for another great video. We're always looking for great clips to showcase, so don't forget to suggest us a future video to be featured.... http://www.trmk.org/news/12704/mmm_voices_of_mortal_kombat_armageddon.html Mon, 17 Aug 2009 06:06:48 CST http://www.trmk.org/news/12704/mmm_voices_of_mortal_kombat_armageddon.html This week's Mortal Movie Monday featured presentation could be considered a piece of Retro Mortal Kombat as there are not many videos from this era. Around the time of the original release of Mortal Kombat on the home consoles, the popular UK video game show Gamesmaster had a Mortal Kombat themed episode in September of 1993. In the episode they brought over the actors from the game to talk about how it was made, and even includes a challenge between Sonya and Johnny Cage in a round of Mortal Kombat. The actors who appeared are: Elizabeth Malecki who played Sonya, Dan Pesina who played Johnny Cage (and the ninjas) and Ho-Sung Pak who played Liu Kang. You should watch the clip to see who goes home the victor. Thanks to Tim Static for suggesting the video and MKSecrets for providing the video. Come back next Mortal Movie Monday for another great video. We're always looking for great clips to showcase, so don't forget to suggest us a future video to be featured.... http://www.trmk.org/news/12684/mmm_mortal_kombat_feature_from_uks_gamemaster.html Mon, 10 Aug 2009 05:05:44 CST http://www.trmk.org/news/12684/mmm_mortal_kombat_feature_from_uks_gamemaster.html A recent job posting made by WB Games Inc. Chicago for the upcoming Mortal Kombat 9 is revealing that the Mortal Kombat Team is aiming to focus on strengthening it's online game play. In particular they want to make the game the “gold standard” for online games and add "brand-new features that will revolutionize online play." Here is the relevant part of the job description: WB Games Inc. seeks a Senior Software Engineer, Network to help us implement cutting-edge online features to ensure the Mortal Kombat franchise is an industry leader in online functionality. We are looking to position Mortal Kombat as the “gold standard” for network play, and we are looking for someone who wants to push the boundaries of what is possible with online interaction. You will work closely with architects and designers on both the Mortal Kombat team and the advanced technology group to help design and implement functionality ranging from the core ... http://www.trmk.org/news/12683/mortal_kombat_9_job_listing_reveals_online_play_focus.html Fri, 07 Aug 2009 09:09:16 CST http://www.trmk.org/news/12683/mortal_kombat_9_job_listing_reveals_online_play_focus.html This week's Mortal Movie Monday is another great Mortal Kombat reference parody found in another medium. As we all know, Mortal Kombat is referenced and parodied all around the world. So it wasn't a total surprise to see a great parody of Mortal Kombat in the menu system of the DVD for The IT Crowd Series 2. For those unfamiliar with the show, The IT Crowd is a british comedy focusing around a small group of IT workers and the people they interact with. It's a brilliant show created by the self proclaimed geek Graham Linehan and is created in such a way it appeals to the geeks and non-geeks alike. It wasn't available until recently in the US, as reruns now air on Tuesday nights on IFC Channel. Also earlier this year the DVD sets are becoming available on Amazon as well as instant streaming on Netflix. The previous season's IT Crowd DVD had many pop culture and video game references, and the second season goes above and beyond that. It is riddled with video game references from ... http://www.trmk.org/news/12679/mmm_the_it_crowd_mortal_kombat_parody_menus.html Tue, 04 Aug 2009 08:08:06 CST http://www.trmk.org/news/12679/mmm_the_it_crowd_mortal_kombat_parody_menus.html This week's Mortal Monday video was again pointed out by none other than Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon via Twitter and is another This Ain't No Game (TANG) feature from Giant Bomb. This TANG is the follow up to the video review of the original Mortal Kombat movie from a few months ago, this time it takes aim at the sequel Mortal Kombat: Annihilation. Giant Bomb's Ryan Davis literally rips apart the "simply awful" Mortal Kombat: Annihilation. He also points out some of the bizarre things that happen throughout the movie that don't make sense even to the fans watching the movie. They also put together an excellent montage of the horrible CGI effects though-out the movie. This video clip should definitely makes anyone laugh at it's clever criticism of this very terrible movie. Come back next Mortal Movie Monday for another great video. We're always lo... http://www.trmk.org/news/12674/mmm_giant_bombs_take_on_mk_annihilation.html Mon, 27 Jul 2009 10:10:49 CST http://www.trmk.org/news/12674/mmm_giant_bombs_take_on_mk_annihilation.html Since as of today Midway Games is now Warner Bros., I decided to run a video this Mortal Movie Monday that was put together by Midway called The History of Fatalities. The feature goes into the history of our favorite finishing moves and it's use in Mortal Kombat over the past 15+ years. It is over twenty minutes long, and talks with various developers on the Mortal Kombat Team about what their favorite or least favorite Fatalities are. The video was only available on the bonus DVD that came along with the Premium Edition of Mortal Kombat: Armageddon for the PlayStation 2. So sit back, grab some popcorn and watch this week's Mortal Movie Monday clip. Get the Flash Player to see this player.var so = new SWFObject('http://www.trmk.org/embed/video/player.swf','mpl','550','412','8'); so.addParam('wmode','transparent'); so.addParam('allowscriptaccess','always'); so.addParam('allowfullscreen','true'); so.addParam('flashvars','&file=http://www.trmk.org/video/History_of_Fatalit... http://www.trmk.org/news/12665/mortal_movie_monday_history_of_fatalities.html Mon, 13 Jul 2009 11:11:42 CST http://www.trmk.org/news/12665/mortal_movie_monday_history_of_fatalities.html We've received confirmation this morning that the name Midway Games is no more after today. The company will drop it's over fifty year old name, and continue operations under a Warner Bros. moniker effective Monday July 13th, 2009. It is likely they will be operating now under the Warner Brothers Games moniker. Development of Mortal Kombat 9 should be unchanged but will just continue under the new company name. I'd also expect to see re-releases of any of intellectual property purchased by Warner Brothers earlier this month without the Midway name attached to it. Additional confirmation can be seen from a few of the Mortal Kombat developers on Twitter. Both Hector Sanchez and Hans Lo have put out their own tributes to the company name on their feeds today. As someone who grew up with the Midway name being on most of my favorite games at the arcades, and later on the home video game consoles, this is quite an end to an era. I was always proud that Midway Games was centered i... http://www.trmk.org/news/12662/rip_midway_games_19582009_in_name_only.html Fri, 10 Jul 2009 11:11:56 CST http://www.trmk.org/news/12662/rip_midway_games_19582009_in_name_only.html For the past three years, rumors have been flying around regarding a third Mortal Kombat movie and everyone of them have been proven to be false. The latest comes from actor/martial artist Chris Casamassa, the original Scorpion in both movies. In an interview with the San Gabriel Valley Tribute, Casamassa slips that filming for the third Mortal Kombat movie begins in September. Can this even be possible with the recent legal proceedings between Threshold Entertainment and Warner Bros., new owners of Midway and the Mortal Kombat franchise? Could a script and casting have already been completed by Threshold and the project carried over to Warner Bros.? Is Warner Bros. even included in the movie rights? No word on whether the ruling of Threshold Entertainment's claims to the movie rights to Mortal Kombat during the bankruptcy proceedings were successful. Both Threshold Entertainment and Midway refuse to comment to TRMK regarding the movie rights matter. More rumors and more specu... http://www.trmk.org/news/12660/rumors_fly_as_third_mortal_kombat_movie_shoots_in_september.html Wed, 08 Jul 2009 12:12:23 CST http://www.trmk.org/news/12660/rumors_fly_as_third_mortal_kombat_movie_shoots_in_september.html Today on Twitter, Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon revealed a render of Quan Chi from the unreleased/cancelled downloadable content (DLC) for the 2008 game Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe. The other character that was to be released via DLC is DC Comic's Harley Quinn. Here is what Ed had to say: "Excited about MK9 and WB, but wish we could have released DLC for MKvsDC. Here's a peek." - Ed Boon via Twitter on 7/7/2009 Ed previously stated that the DLC was nearly complete, but we are to believe it's release is unlikely due to the team focusing on Mortal Kombat 9. The exact reason for the cancellation of the DLC is unknown, but it's likely to be because of Midway's financial situation with the bankruptcy proceedings and the cost of further testing and publication & certification of the DLC with Sony and Microsoft. Also, Warner Bros. was on the list of companies Midway owed money, which probably didn't help with the cause much. With Warner Bros. now owning Midway, it is... http://www.trmk.org/news/12658/quan_chi_render_from_mk_vs_dcu_dlc_revealed.html Tue, 07 Jul 2009 12:12:11 CST http://www.trmk.org/news/12658/quan_chi_render_from_mk_vs_dcu_dlc_revealed.html