Translated material
It's just a game
The story of the birth of the Mortal Kombat by the eyes of its creators: Hollywood Reporter
On August 18, 1995, the film “Deadly Battle” was released (it is more familiar to Russian viewers from the original name - Mortal Kombat). The adventure action movie based on the game of the same name was extremely successful, despite the fears of the creators of the game.
On the 20th anniversary of the “deadly battle”, Hollywood Reporter talked with its creators and actors who fulfilled the main roles: about skepticism, broken ribs, Cameron Diaz in the role of Sonya Blade and a model of the four-armed prince of the city.
About skepticism
June 1993. Midway Games, the developer of the Mortal Kombat sensational game, tests the next part. Producer Larry Casanoff, who entered the Midway office, plays Mortal Kombat II for half an hour and, shocked, tells the then head of the company Neil D. Nicastro that this is not just a game, this is a phenomenon.
Casanoff asked Nicastro the right to film adaptation of Mortal Kombat, and in response he heard: “Are you going? It's just an arcade game! " The next three months, the producer tried to convince the developers that they had done something more.
Midway skepticism reinforced the failures of other films shot in games - for example, according to Mario Bros. But Casanoff tortured developers and persuaded them to give him the rights. At the same time, no one believed in the idea of the producer, everyone was sure that his career would end there.
About the director
Filming of the film thought to entrust any of the eminent directors with a long list of successful paintings. But the choice of Lori Apelian, an assistant producer, fell on an unknown sex of Anderson - at that time the future creator of the “Alien against the Predator” and the film series “The Abode of Evil” behind his shoulders had only one film.
Anderson says that he grew up in the British industrial town of Newkasl-Apon-Tyn, where there was no film industry. The director had to go to London for meetings. Often, meetings were scheduled in the morning and afternoon, and he spent his free time in game clubs - in particular, for Mortal Kombat. Therefore, Anderson reacted with great enthusiasm to the proposal to make a film in one of his favorite games.
About the script
The first version of the script for the film turned out, according to the developers of the game, too cheerful. Raden was constantly joking in him, and Ed Bun, one of the creators of Faiting, once said: “This is a very serious character, not a clown.” A significant contribution to the alteration of the script was made by actor Linden Eshby, who played Johnny Cage. After the release of the film, he met the author of the script by Kevin Droni at a party - he introduced Ashby: “This is the guy I talked about. This is the asshole that ruined my script. ”
About the age rating
The assistant producer Apelian recalls that the film was supposed to fit into the PG-13 rating (children under 13 are allowed to watch only with parents), despite the fact that the game was extremely cruel. The creators of the “deadly battle” closely communicated with the commission, which made a decision on the rating to clarify how many obscene words and blood could be in the film.
It turned out that it was impossible to show the murder of a person on the screen, but the murder of other creatures was allowed. Therefore, for example, the death of the city is shown in the “deadly battle”, and this did not interfere with the PG-13 rating.
About the city
The creation of a four -armed prince, serving Emperor Shao Kan, spent a million dollars on the creation of a doll. The monster was controlled by 13 to 16 people - one was responsible for the eyes, the other behind the eyebrows and so on. At the same time, he often broke and the crew had to wait. They joked at the site: "The city does not want to leave his trailer."
Paul Anderson recalls that he tried to remove the city as creatively as possible. The appearance and synchronism of the movements of the character's lips was finalized using computer graphics.
About Liu Kan
For the role of Liu Kan - the protagonist Mortal Kombat - decided to take Robin Shu, an actor engaged in eastern martial arts. Shu recalls that it was the most exhausting casting. He was listened to seven times - from producers and director to the New Line film company, who released the picture.
According to the actor, a friend-agent advised him to star in the film: "They take people for the film" Deadly Battle "." Shu laughed - it seemed to him that the “mortal battle” was a very stupid name. He also did not believe in the idea of filming video games either. But the friend insisted.
About Sonya Blade
The role of Sonya Blade was originally planned to take the unknown Cameron Diaz - the doubts of the creators of the “deadly battle” were disappeared after the “mask” with her participation. Diaz began to train for combat scenes, but right before the start of filming, she broke the brush, and had to abandon the actress.
Sonya Blade was eventually played by Bridget Wilson - she, like Shu, recalls a very long casting process with seven auditions. While the creators of the “deadly battle” thought, Wilson managed to star in the film “Billy Madison”.
The actress herself performed all the tricks and participated in all the battle scenes of her character. She did not have enough time for training, but the filmmakers transferred the shooting of the fight Sonya Blade from Kano to the end so that Wilson managed to prepare.
About Reiden
The creators of the film wanted to call for the role of the god Raiden Sean Connery. But at that moment Connery did not want to act - only play golf. Therefore, Paul Anderson and Larry Casanoff offered the role of Christopher Lambert, at that time already an actor.
Lambert before you agree, watched Anderson's first film and was impressed. In addition, this was the only action movie for filming in which the actor did not need to train - because Goden God.
About Tom Cruise
Filming "Deadly Battle" partially took place at the Santa Monica airport (USA). Linden Ashby (Johnny Cage) recalls that the crew had a cunning physician who was worth getting a guard, not a doctor - so he followed the order.
Not far from the set was the Angar of Tom Cruise. He came up and asked what they were taking off and whether it was possible to see. The doctor did not let the actor: “You do not participate in this film. I don't care who you are, fail! ”
About injuries
When the first version of the “deadly battle” was shown by a test audience, those as one said: “We like everything, but the film is not enough for fights.” Therefore, Casanoff and Anderson returned to the shooting, spent much more money than they wanted, but withdrew additional combat scenes: the fight Liu Kan with the reptile and the fight of Johnny Kage with Scorpio.
Anderson recalls that Robin Shu measured each combat scene on a three -point scale - according to the number of ribs broken by him. A fight with a reptile received three points.
Shu himself recalls that he broke two ribs when the reptile threw him into a pillar on the tenth oak. The actor did not tell anyone not to interrupt the filming process, but asked his opponent not to beat on the right side of the body.
Linden at first did not want to act in the battle scene and demanded an understudy, but in the end he was convinced. During a fight with Scorpio, the actor recalls, he broke through his defense and hit the kidney-for some time Linden urinated with blood.
According to Anderson, when Linden complained of pain, he replied: “How many ribs did you break? Shu broke three! "
About the success of the film
Paul Anderson was very afraid of the day of the premiere, so he decided to escape with his girlfriend away from Los Angeles-in Hawaii. There he opened the press and saw that the film was leading at the box office. The director urgently wanted to go to Los Angeles, but the trip to Hawaii was already paid, so he remained. The "deadly battle" was the leader in the box office for three weeks.
After the film was released, Anderson was offered to shoot the second part of the “deadly battle”, but he refused: the director wanted to try something new. Therefore, he took off “through the horizon”, but later looked around and thought: “Perhaps it was worth it to remove [the continuation of the“ deadly battle ”].”
This is one of the reasons why, subsequently, having begun to engage in another adaptation of the game - the “monastery of evil” - I decided to hold on to it. I am going to stay with the franchise and her mouth. Ironically, the refusal of the “deadly battle 2” is one of the reasons why I do “the monastery of evil 2, 3, 4, 5, 6” ...