Joey Magidson
Being a screenwriter on big Hollywood productions can be a real ego check. Especially if you’re not the only one with a credit, or even if barely a word of what you wrote makes it to the screen, if you’re on the poster, you’re going to get fan reactions. For Jeremy Slater, he’s gotten all sides of it, which lends for not just a thick skin, but also perspective. So, now that he has his first solo writing credit for a film with Mortal Kombat II, he’s getting to enjoy largely praise for the action sequel. With the movie now in theaters, I spoke to him about how he figured out what to include in this installment, what might not have worked, and being just a writer.
In my review of Mortal Kombat II here, I spoke of Slater’s writing for the film like so:
What makes this installment the first one actually worth recommending is the screenplay by Slater, which is a cut above what you’d expect. Between the easter eggs and well timed humor, there’s also just a sense of what makes a successful Mortal Kombat installment. Instead of just a bit of what people loved about the games, with a lot of generic action thrown in, this is mainly about the tournament, with just some extra filler surrounding. When it all comes together, like with a really funny fight scene between Urban’s Cage and Bloomfield’s Baraka, you see what the franchise should have been all along.
Below, you can hear my chat with Slater. We obviously focus on Mortal Kombat II, but if you’re curious about his experience writing on the ill fated Fantastic Four movie from Josh Trank, you’ll hear about that too. I was really interested in finding out how he decided which characters to include in the sequel, what it’s like to finally have a solo credit on a flick, and more. We also laugh a lot, so this is one of the more purely enjoyable conversations I’ve had in a bit. It’s befitting a big, fun, silly action sequel, too. I could have spoken to Slater for an hour, though at 30 minutes plus, he was more than generous with his time.
Here now is my interview with Mortal Kombat II screenwriter Jeremy Slater. Enjoy:
Mortal Kombat II is in theaters now!
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