Writer Greg Russo is the man behind the upcoming Mortal Kombat reboot. This is a project that has been in the works for a very long time and, after years of uncertainty, Russo managed to crack the code. While details are slim, Russo has at least explained part of what cracking that code involved, and they took a little inspiration from one of the biggest R-rated hits in recent memory; Deadpool.

Obviously, given the success of Deadpool (and last year's sequel) any studio would love to try and emulate that. But it's not so simple as copy and paste, especially considering that Greg Russo is adapting a very popular fighting game for the big screen. However, in a recent interview, Russo explained, tonally, that they used the Ryan Reynolds' comic book adaptation as something of a touchstone. Here's what he had to say about it.

"We wanted to be somewhat truthful with the tone of the game. So if you played the games, there are real stakes, there's real emotion behind what the characters are going through but at the same time, it's really fun. I mean Mortal Kombat's always been very tongue-in-cheek in how it approaches whether it's kind of over the top violence or just kind of some of the insane story ideas that they come up with.

I mean there's always been this kind of fun nature to it. We looked at the games and then we also were looking at some film comps to compare our tone to. And I think things like Deadpool popped up and we're like, we really like the tone of that. You know, it's got some great humor in there, but if you kind of take the humor out of it, it's got real characters, like really emotional stakes behind what the characters are going through. So that was something that we looked at for the tone of this. It'll be fun, but it'll also be obviously real stakes, real characters, real emotion."

This makes a great deal of sense. Mortal Kombat, inherently, is ultra-violent. There's no way to do a faithful, modern adaptation of the game and get around that. Part of what makes Deadpool work so well is using levity to help cushion the blow of that violence. And Wade Wilson is an actual character with actual feelings and a backstory that makes him worth caring about. If Greg Russo can, in vague terms, do the same thing for this property, we could be in for a treat.

Again, though details are slim, the writer is saying the right things. Outside of this, he's also confirmed that the movie will earn it's R-rated status, partially by including game-accurate fatalities for the first time in a live-action adaptation. As fans may recall, two previous movies were released in the 90s in the early days of video game movies. Also, not for nothing, but Greg Russo has earned several other high-profile gigs since completing this script, including the Space Invaders movie, so he must be doing something right.

James Wan (The Conjuring) is on board as a producer with Simon McQuoid set to make his directorial debut. Filming is set to begin later this year in Australia and, so far, the only casting decision that has been made is Joe Taslin (The Raid) as Sub-Zero. Mortal Kombat is set to hit theaters on March 5, 2021. This news comes to us via Comicbook.com