Remember the really awesome looking trailer for a live-action Mortal Kombat film? Warner Bros. confirmed that it would be crafted into a nine-part web series, and the first episode will debut on April 12–just a week before the game’s release.
Machinima will be carrying the pilot following a live stream event, where actors from the series along with show director Kevin Tancharoen will be trying their best not look like utter n00bs as they fight in Mortal Kombat. There’s no word on how or when the following segments will be aired, but apparently they will be available through “online digital retailers from Warner Bros. Digital Distribution,” so prepare your wallets.
The premise of the series is to showcase the backstory, history, and “never-before-revealed insights” of Mortal Kombat’s well-known characters such as Johnny Cage, Liu Kang, and Scorpion, and Sub Zero.
If it wasn’t for Tancharoen’s lack of YouTube skills, we almost certainly wouldn’t be seeing anything like a web series, let alone an original trailer. Talking to Gamasutra in January, he said, “I am not the most technically savvy YouTube person. It was still in its rough phase, but I couldn’t send a 2GB file over email, so my friend said I could create a private page on YouTube and sent it to him to review. It turns out it wasn’t that private.”
It’s all good, Kevin. Landing a deal with Warner Bros. and potentially huge fame isn’t the worst thing that can happen from a leaked video.
