Simon McQuoid MORTAL KOMBAT 2 director discussing making the blockbuster

Australian filmmaker Simon McQuoid, helmed Mortal Kombat (2021) + its better received follow up Mortal Kombat 2 (2026) talks behind the scenes and why no Christopher Lambert cameo (which I was sort of hoping for) 

MORTAL KOMBAT 2 starring Damon Herriman, Jessica McNamee, Karl Urban, Ana Thu Nguyen, Tati Gabrielle, Josh Lawson, Hiroyuki Sanada a WARNER BROS NEW LINE CINEMA film

https://youtube.com/@movieanalystshaneadambassett?si=nZyw5fHIS4t_KgXj

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:04

Thank you. Thank you very much. Keep the applause down. Hello, my name is Shane. Shane A. Bassett. Thank you for joining me on another edition of Cine Critique. And yes, this is another interview with Mortal Kombat 2 personnel. This time the director, Simon McCoyd, my fellow Australian. He's out of earth. And he did direct the 2021 version of Mortal Kombat, which was pretty much criticized for being a setup better than this one. To say that 2021 movie wasn't a hit, well it would have been a misfire and they would have had to reboot it. But thankfully, for some reason, it was a hit because I didn't like it much. Yeah, this one was a much better film, but this is a taste of that first film from 2021, which uh got people into the cinemas. Ironically, it was rated R in Australia, so it restricted the audience, but it uh still found a big enough audience for it to register a sequel and a much better sequel. This was the setup.

SPEAKER_04 1:22

First learned about this seven years ago. On a mission in Brazil to capture a wanted fugitive.

SPEAKER_05 1:29

The target has superhuman abilities. It had the same dragon marking you before.

SPEAKER_02 2:37

It's been a huge hit. And here is Simon and I having a chat. It's all about Mortal Kombat 2. At some point I actually brought up Christopher Lambert, uh, who was the star of the 90s Mortal Kombat. Always wanted to know why he never had a cameo. Just don't know. What's in the water over at Perth? All this talent coming out of Perth, actors, directors, screenwriters?

SPEAKER_01 3:32

I don't know. I think growing up in a wonderful, beautiful place, um, maybe it just gives us room to imagine and no other pressures in our life. Yeah, it was a great place to grow up, and you know, I love the place. So um I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 3:47

I I don't know. The industry's really growing over there.

SPEAKER_01 3:50

It sure is, yeah. Yeah, they've just built these amazing uh studios, Perth Film Studios. They're really impressive. Um and so it's just going from strength to strength, and yeah, good crew, good people over there, and um yeah, th these stages are impressive.

SPEAKER_02 4:09

It was good to see you use a little bit more of Damon Harriman in this movie. That was good to see.

SPEAKER_01 4:14

Yeah, Damon is someone I've wanted to work with for years.

SPEAKER_02 4:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:18

And as soon as I I tried to get him in the first one, but there just wasn't really a role for him. Um but as soon as um you know, I thought I'd we need Quan Chi in this film, and even well before we did any pre-production, I just thought I'd want Damon to do it. And he was a pleasure to work with. He's very, very good, that guy.

SPEAKER_02 4:37

Yeah, knowing him personally, I know he had a good time on set.

SPEAKER_01 4:40

Yeah, he's such a such a joy to work with and such a nice bloke, but he just brings a level of um skill. Um and I knew that Conchi's a kind of a nut so crazy character. And um I needed someone who There's something about interesting about Damien Damon. He's the loveliest guy, but he can play dark characters really well. He can switch. Yeah. Um yeah, he's great.

SPEAKER_02 5:06

Uh there's a trend actually towards superhero movies sort of not phasing out, but a little bit less more popular, and then video game movies on the upward scale. How do you feel about that?

SPEAKER_01 5:16

I think it's great. I think what what um I don't know why it took this long, but what people have realized and what we've tried to do um is respect the material and tr think about the material just as you would think about a book or think about a any any bit of IP, whether it be a comic book or whether it be a novel or anything, you just respect the characters and the material. I think Mortal Kombat has been widely successful as a game, and now in other facets of which there are many, because of the characters. And I think once that and look, The Last of Us is another great example. You care about the characters and their relationships, and that's something that really mattered to me, especially the first one, but also I learned a lot and really tried to apply to the second one was the connectivity for an audience to very kind of truthful human emotions that these characters are going through in amongst all the wild epic crazy, and I think that's what carries uh an audience's experience.

SPEAKER_02 6:20

Yeah, no, I totally agree. Uh, what about the classification? The first one was R-rated, pretty strong R. I know uh rules have changed a little bit since the release of the first movie. Still a lot of swearing violence. Do you think that'll cut out many kids and families? Um would you consider lowering a classification or making two versions of it?

SPEAKER_01 6:40

Well, there are there are different versions of it, you know. Obviously, for um for broadcast and so forth, there are, you know, and that's something we spend a lot of time crafting and getting that right. Um I think we have to, going back to my earlier answer, you've got to respect the game. It's all about respect what the material is. So uh we embrace that. And I just I always two things with the violence. So one of the things I said in the very first pitch meeting I ever was, you know, a long time ago, yeah. I said, if we are only relying on the violence to get us through, then we've lost. It has to be built on on the jeopardy and the peril that characters we love are in. Good point. And then if if then it just plusses the experience for the audience because it's like, well, I care about Liu Kang, I care about Sonia, you know, and and they are now in this difficult position. How are they gonna? And I care that I, you know, and and so as long as we had that in mind, I also wanted sort of a sense of beauty and cinematic grace and scale to to the every fight, um, whether that be the, you know, and even the violence and even some of that, it it has to has to have a an artistic quality to it, not just I'd never wanted anything gratuitous.

SPEAKER_02 7:56

Uh Kano just seems like he is not, he's off script. Is that true? There's three writers credited to the film, but is he is he actually going on off script or well?

SPEAKER_01 8:07

It seems that a lib. Well, the first, so the second film only has one writer, that's Jeremy Slater. Yeah. And Jeremy wrote a lot of the, obviously, wrote a lot of the stuff. Yeah. And as Josh will say, the best way to improv is when you've got a great script. So he's got a good firm base to go with. Here's how Josh works, and he is a dream. He really is a dream. And um, so he I just say to him, he he just rolls up. And when you make your film with this many moving parts, it's nice to have a moment where I don't really have to worry about what he's gonna do. So he comes in and he does does the scripted stuff a few times, sure, and then I just say let it riff, Josh, and then he just goes through. And then he just riffs, and it's amazing he's got a very rare skill to improv and to understand the comedy, and to so a lot of it is Josh's improv in the film, and it was in the first, and it is in this. Um, there's probably more of the script in the second one, but um, Josh is quite something, and and Carl's brilliant at it as well. There's a lot of lines in in the film that are Carl's improv just on the moment. So that's good.

SPEAKER_02 9:20

You're an easy-going director who knows what you want, but you'll also let your actors move move forward in other directions in the street.

SPEAKER_01 9:26

Yeah, I mean, I just my job is just to get out of their way, you know, sure. Get make sure we set up everything for them to come and play. So uh I don't always get it right, but that's really what I'm trying to do.

unknown 9:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:37

Well, to wrap it up, you were saying you want to be really um confident with the games and stick to that. What about the previous movies, the earlier movies? Uh Christopher Lambert, any any thought of having a cameo, a stunt casting of him?

SPEAKER_01 9:51

I no, it didn't really it didn't really cross my mind. I I think I wanted to evolve it and move it into a new place, a new cinematic scale. Okay. And um I um I didn't draw from any of the earlier stuff. I actually didn't want to watch it because I I just wanted it to come fresh from the game as the source material. Okay. And I didn't want to be so coloured by any of that. And um no offense to Christopher Lamb, I'm sure he's a lovely guy. Now I loved him in Highlander.

SPEAKER_02 10:18

Yeah, of course. Yeah. Well, thank you. Uh wrap it up. And I'm a non-gamer, uh, but movie traditionalist, and I enjoyed your movie a lot more than I expected.

SPEAKER_01 10:26

Oh, that's great. Yeah, thanks. Yeah, thank you.

SPEAKER_03 10:32

There are eight billion people on this planet. And motor combat is upon us. If we lose one more time, the earth is gone. Johnny Cage. It's the war. The fate of your world. I hope you're right. I have Johnny Cage. Ah well, you fell. Oh no must be add.

SPEAKER_00 11:56

Get tickets now. Experience it in IMAX. Only theaters may aid.

SPEAKER_02 12:03

Excellent stuff. I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Simon, the director of Mortal Kombat and Mortal Kombat 2. Thank you again for listening to CineCritique at movie underscore analyst, is where you'll find me across the internet. And you'll hear me on radio and see me on TV occasionally too. Shane A. Bassett. Appreciate the time you talk to listen and see you at the movies. Bye for now.