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Lawsuit Seeks To Block Mortal Kombat IP Sale

Tom Ivan's picture

By Tom Ivan

June 26, 2009

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Lawrence Kasanoff of movie production company Threshold Entertainment is suing bankrupt publisher Midway in a bid to retain IP rights for the Mortal Kombat franchise.

Threshold claims it owns the exclusive rights to make movies and TV spin-offs based on the Mortal Kombat IP, and copyrights to certain MK series characters which it says it turned into recognisable names.

Kasanoff says Threshold is largely responsible for building a brand that has grossed over $4 billion to date, and is seeking to block the sale of the MK IP, reports GamePolitics.

“The Mortal Kombat series, as it stands today, is far more a creation of Threshold and Kasanoff than of Midway,” reads the suit. “Midway's creative input was almost entirely limited to the videogames. On their own, the videogames provided only minimal back-story and mythology, and only flat, "stock" characters

“Kasanoff and Threshold were responsible for virtually all of the creative input that went into turning the videogame concept into a multimedia enterprise,” it adds.

Midway is looking to sell of its business operations and recently received a $33 million bid from Warner for the Mortal Kombat IP and other Midway US assets.

Peter_Pesic's picture
On June 26th Peter_Pesic said:

$4 Billion? I would guess that figure encapsulates mostly game sales and arcade earnings, because even if the movies/tv series earned $500million, then there would've been another movie already. Ya Midway was responsible "just" for the games, the medium which earned the bulk of the flashy $4 billion figure they're claiming.

Also, most movie/TV licensing deals have clauses where there has to be films made within X number of years or else the rights revert back to the IP holder. It sounds like Threshold sees Warner picking up the IP as extremely limiting their chances of re-acquiring the movie/tv rights after the contract lapses.

Indrema's picture
On June 26th Indrema said:

Sorry Threshold, but the Mortal Kombat's stereotype of horrible actors in bad CG environments was set in the very first game.

Embra's picture
On June 26th Embra said:

Sounds like a lot of pre-court case posturing. Threshold are perhaps hoping that, by getting their low-blow in now, they might avoid dealing with Warner Bros. far nastier lawyers. Of course, if Warner are fixed on MK, they'll likely have their lawyers wade in at this point anyway. Can't see there being much success out of this for Threshold, though. The films and the tv series' harldy set the world alight with their dazzling characters, scintillating dialogue and astounding design. Ask most MK fans about the licence and they'll point to the games first and foremost, and pretty much laugh off the other media. That's if they've heard of it.

(Though I have to confess, the first MK movie is a guilty pleasure of mine...)

Davidovitch's picture
On June 26th Davidovitch said:

Ehmm what?

Unless there is something I don't know about, Midway created all the characters and their backstory and everything, right? Threshold perhaps made some changes and additions for the movies but to say they are responsible for the 'building the brand' sounds very strange to me.