In 2010, director Kevin Tancharoen (Fame) made a short 10-minute reimagining of Mortal Kombat entitled "Rebirth," which he pitched to Warner Bros. as a means of developing a new feature (it is implied that he was unaware of NetherRealm Studios rebooting the video game series, so it was coincidental that the short plus the news of the new game came out at the same time). Warners liked the idea and gave him the greenlight to shoot a series to appear on the internet through Machinima.
The series sets up a gritty, somewhat more realistic atmosphere, telling the stories of how many of the combatants end up in the Mortal Kombat tournament (so it is a loose prologue to the game that just came out, meaning there are changes from what was shown in the original pitch). It stars Michael Jai White as Jackson "Jax" Briggs, Jeri Ryan as Sonya Blade, Ian Anthony Dale as Hanzo Hasashi / Scorpion, Matt Mullins as Johnny Cage, Darren Shahlavi as Kano, and Tahmoh Penikett as Lt. Kurtis Stryker.
Machinima uploads new episodes every Tuesday-Wednesday.