After wondering exactly why Australia doesn’t treat its gaming industry with the same respect as its film industry, it appears that the people in charge have decided to split the difference by making a big-budget video game movie in the country instead.
South Australian Premier Steven Marshall announced that the long-awaited Mortal Kombat movie reboot has been given the greenlight and will be filming in, wait for it, Adelaide.
That’s Adelaide in South Australia. Huh.
Of all the things that could’ve happened this week, I definitely wouldn’t have predicted the movie adaptation of one of the most entertainingly violent video game series ever conceived being filmed in the most boring place in Australia.
SA will be the stage for @newlinecinema's highly anticipated action film, Mortal Kombat.
The film will be shot in Adelaide, utilising our world-class crews & acting talent, with postproduction in our internationally acclaimed VFX and post-production facilities. #SAJobs pic.twitter.com/QVrBSYrF3V
— Steven Marshall, MP (@marshall_steven) May 14, 2019
Joking aside (Adelaide is a lovely place and far from the most boring place in Australia), having Mortal Kombat in Adelaide is good news as the film will be the city’s largest ever production. The movie is projected to create about 580 jobs with 1,500 extras, and provide about $70 million to the local economy.
Couple this announcement with Labor wanting to bring back the $25 million Australian Interactive Games Fund, it seems like Australia is very slowly building up its video game industry once again.
Now as for whether Mortal Kombat will be good or be the latest in a long line of awful video game movies, well we have no idea but there’s some good behind-the-scenes talent on the project with Aquaman director James Wan and Tag producer Todd Garner serving as executive producers, and Simon McQuiod directing.
As long as there’s a bunch of fatalities from the likes of Sub-Zero and Scorpion, I’ll be happy.
It’s just a mere flesh wound.
It’s way to early to judge how the film is going to turn out so let’s just be happy at the news because there’s a new Mortal Kombat movie being made and it’s going to be filmed in Adelaide. That’s already a damn big win in my book, irrespective of the final product’s quality.