The director of Mortal Kombat tried to avoid the green screen as much as possible

When the first trailer for the Mortal Kombat movie debuted, the consensus seemed to be that it looked like a real, bloody martial arts action movie. And according to director Simon McQuoid, he tried to shoot the film with as little green screen as possible. “I don’t like a lot of green screen,” said McQuoid during a group interview before SXSW. “Still, there is a little bit of that in the film, you will see some things that you just couldn’t avoid, but I try and avoid and try to do things.”

McQuoid says that filming the film in the most cinematic way possible “felt right” for what he wanted to do with the film. “And then, I felt very privileged to have the opportunity to bring these beloved characters to life and respect the material and turn it into this great film.”

Until Mortal Kombat, McQuoid was best known for his commercial work, including a series of live action commercials for PlayStation that feature recognizable heroes from major PlayStation games like Uncharted. McQuoid says it served as a basis for his desire to bring cinematic quality to a video game adaptation.

“I did a lot of video game commercials, which I always … wanted them to have a scale that looked big and elegant and had a beauty inside them, but had a kind of cinematic quality to them,” says McQuoid.

“So I did something for PlayStation where there were a lot of beloved PlayStation characters … I love having the opportunity to bring well-known characters to life so that they look real and connected to the public and [Mortal Kombat] it was just another version of it. “

Mortal Kombat seems to tell the classic story of Mortal Kombat, in which several martial artists will gather and participate in a mortal tournament to determine the fate of the Earth. Familiar characters like Sonya Blade, Raiden, Liu Kang, Sub-Zero and Scorpion will be there to face off in smaller battles.

McQuoid talked about the importance of respecting the franchise’s DNA, which means that the battles were not just bloody because of the blood, but kept the martial arts in the franchise. The devotion to authenticity also led to an inclusive cast, mostly Asian, to incorporate the iconic Mortal Kombat cast.

Mortal Kombat will be released on HBO Max as part of the streaming platform’s plan to launch all WarnerMedia 2021 theatrical films on HBO Max. Mortal Kombat’s debut trailer has already broken audience records for lower rated trailers.

Matt Kim is the news editor at IGN.