Mortal Kombat movie reboot may have found its director

Mortal Kombat may be returning to movie theaters with the help of director Simon McQuoid, who’s in talks to helm the cinematic reboot of the franchise, according to a report from Variety.

McQuoid’s expertise lies in commercial directing. He’s done work for Duracell, Logitech, Samsung and Netflix, but video game enthusiasts will likely remember his live-action work for PlayStation and Xbox. McQuoid directed the “Michael” ad for Sony’s PlayStation 3, in which characters like Nathan Drake, Kratos and Solid Snake praise a heroic player named Michael, and Halo 3’s “Enemy Weapon” spot, in which two elderly former UNSC soldiers wax nostalgic about the futuristic weapons of war.

Warner Bros.’ New Line Cinema division has been trying to reboot the Mortal Kombat movie franchise for some time. At one point, Mortal Kombat: Legacy director Kevin Tancharoen was attached to the project but dropped out in 2013. In 2015, New Line brought in director James Wan (Saw, Insidious) to produce the reboot, with writers Dave Callaham (Doom, The Expendables) and Oren Uziel (Mortal Kombat: Legacy, 22 Jump Street) attached to write. According to Variety, writer Greg Russo has taken a fresh pass at the new Mortal Kombat script.

New Line produced two films based on the fighting game franchise in the ‘90s: Mortal Kombat and Mortal Kombat: Annihilation. Warner Bros. released two seasons of the web series Mortal Kombat: Legacy in 2011 and 2013, based on the success of Tancharoen’s unauthorized short film, Mortal Kombat: Rebirth.