Mortal Kombat Film Producer Sues Midway

[DoctorFinger]

Lawrence Kasanoff, the producer of the Mortal Kombat films and TV shows is suing Midway in Bankruptcy Court to try and protect what he claims to be his intellectual property.

Last month Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment made a $33 million dollar bid for the bankrupt Midway's assets, including the rights to the Mortal Kombat property. Kasanoff apparently feels that having an arm of a film studio acquire the property would lead to problems down the road. However, Kasanoff seems to think very highly of his own role in making Mortal Kombat into a household name.

In 1993, Kasanoff visited Midway... with an idea to launch the Mortal Kombat concept in a totally new direction. Specifically, Kasanoff proposed to develop... a full feature-length motion picture, a television series, and other productions. Midway was initially skeptical, as Kasanoff's idea was revolutionary at the time...

The Mortal Kombat series, as it stands today, is far more a creation of Threshold and Kasanoff than of Midway. Midway's creative input was almost entirely limited to the videogames. On their own, the videogames provided only minimal back-story and mythology, and only flat, "stock" characters... Kasanoff and Threshold were responsible for virtually all of the creative input that went into turning the videogame concept into a multimedia enterprise.

Kasanoff takes credit for turning characters such as Liu Kang, Sonya and Scorpion from "generic stock characters" into "fully-realized, completely-delineated and independently copyrightable" characters. In essence, he claims that the movies he produced contributed more to the characters than the games which spawned them originally. Which is a hell of a claim if you ask me.

Source - Game Politics.

[Spectre-7]

Fixed: Move along, nothing to see here.

[Savok]

0 + 0 is still 0

[BigJonno]

Considering that MK is one of the few fighters that has a backstory that is more than "a bunch of people get together to have a fight" I reckon he's talking out of his arse. I remember playing my first MK title for donkey's a couple of years ago and ended up hitting the wiki to find out what the hell had been going on (like why was Liu Kang a zombie, for starters.)

[Hawkzombie]

I still can't believe they killed off Liu Kang. And he didn't even go out like a hero. He got his damn neck snapped like a bad-guy extra in a Schwarzenegger film.

In case some people don't know already

Still, this seems like nothing more than a cash grab.

[DoctorFinger]

I completely understand Kasanoff trying to protect what he sees are his exclusive film/TV rights to the property. Warners buying Midway could threaten that. But claiming that he's the real reason the property is valuable is just moronic.

[The Continental]

I would think anyone involved with the "creative" aspects of the Mortal Kombat films would want to distance themselves as much as possible. Owning up to the Mortal Kombat character back stories is like owning up to shitting yourself at the dinner table.

[Telefrog]

I'd say the Mortal Kombat song Techno Syndrome, by The Immortals, did more to push the franchise.

That song is all kinds of awesome.

[Hawkzombie]

Originally Posted by Telefrog

I'd say the Mortal Kombat song Techno Syndrome, by The Immortals, did more to push the franchise.

That song is all kinds of awesome.

I agree wholeheartedly. Whenever I listen to my music, it's not complete until this song pops up at least once

[Doogie2K]

I didn't see the "film" part of the title, so I thought Ed Boone was throwing down in order to get his piece of the pie or something. This guy's just batshit crazy. The first movie was kind of alright, but everything else? Not so much. Though Kristanna Lokken, who was on the TV show, is pretty hot. (Aside: She was on The L Word recently? Hm...)

[Adam Blue]

Sounded to me like Boone is working on 9, and while Mk vs. DC might not have been what was wanted, it was probably in Midway's best interest to get some revenue flowing. I think the MK series is fine, it's really just Midway.

[Vigil80]

Is that the same TV show that used to come on TNT? Seemed like it was only loosely based on the game, and followed these two pretty normal villager type guys? One was named Ciro I think...

[Heretic Machine]

The Mortal Kombat series, as it stands today, is far more a creation of Threshold and Kasanoff than of Midway.

Haha, no... Hell, not only did the movie not follow the storyline of the game very well, I don't think the games ever actually took anything from the movies and incorporated it into the franchise.

But whatever, Mortal Kombat sucks in general (and always has). Fighting over a dead property like MK is pretty stupid, if you ask me.

[LongStepMantis]

What a moron. Those movies were terrible. If anything, his work helped to destroy the franchise.

I'm as responsible for MK's "success" as he is.

[Vigil80]

It's always been a shame. They have cool character concepts, and the barest framework of the plot sounds neat, but when they actually try to tell the story it goes to hell in a handbasket. The best storytelling was done in the games when they just showed a still with words down the side.

Somebody tell them to sell the property to Joss Whedon.

[Hawkzombie]

Originally Posted by Prizefighter

Somebody tell them to sell the property to Joss Whedon.

If that happened, everyone would fall in love and find true happiness only to be followed seconds later by FATALITY.

[J3DI]

Huh.....................

[yeti]

Johny Cage in the movie was awesome, shame the fuckers had to kill him off. Still, it's just as well he wasn't in the second, my eyes, my eyes they still burn!

The MK games stopped been relevant to me at part 2 (with a brief revival for ultimate).

[lucklesswonder]

Does this mean we have to credit Uwe Boll with the popularity of video games?

Uhn. Huh. I think my soul just started hemorrhaging.

[J Arcane]

I saw this earlier. My response is the same:

What a self-entitled twatmonkey.