For anyone who has been under a rock for the last week, there was a bit of a surprise on the web in the form of a viral video supposedly posing as a trailer to a new Mortal Kombat film. What exactly is it? And what could it mean for a future film?

The 8-minute, self-contained short introduces Jackson "Jax" Briggs and Sonya Blade interrogating an unidentified, high-profile assassin. Under the pretense that this man infiltrate a criminal fighting tournament, he'll get something he wants. The tournament, an underground battle royale involving serial killers and deformed humans (Baraka and Reptile, respectively), will be taking place under the management of crime kingpin Shao Khan. The law wants Khan, and the law can give their new friend something in return - the man known as Sub-Zero. After he agrees, Jax reminds the man, revealed to be Hanso Hasashi, that they want Shao Khan. Alas, Hanso Asashi is dead, his name... is Scorpion.

After speculation started that this was direct footage of a currently "in production" film, Sony Blade actress Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine) revealed on Twitter that it is a proof of concept demo to pitch to WB in hopes that they will produce a feature film. Ryan appeared by request of a friend, who apparently did the whole thing for free (others involved may have donated their time and efforts in the hopes of participating in what could be a financially promising film).

From Slashfilm:
"The short film was shot in early April completely on spec. It was shot over two days on two RED cameras for or $7,500 with most of the crew donating their time. Post production took two months, and no one at the studio knew anything about the spec short film, even though screenwriter Oren Uziel (who is attached to the next Mortal Kombat movie according to IMDB) wrote the script. Tancharoen made the film as a pitch for the job."

This is what we know so far: a short film was created on an ultra-low budget to pitch to WB. There is no current commitment to produce/distribute this film, so it's still in the "twinkle in the eye" stage. The fact that there is an IMDB entry for a Mortal Kombat film due in 2013 is completely irrelevant; it was created long ago and was last updated February 2010 (it may have been updated by community users since the release of the video). Please note that IMDB is not an official MPAA controlled site that is created, moderated, or approved by anyone in the film business. It's an independent site with its own staff that relies on (moderated) user submissions to create the comprehensive film database that it is today. It's essentially a very focused Wikipedia. That said, the rights to such a film are still unresolved, since Midway (the video game publisher) collapsed and Warner Bros acquired their property. Why doesn't WB just automatically own the film rights? Because Threshold Entertainment held the film rights throughout the original films and renewed in 2006. They're lawsuit against WB states that they should still retain those rights, regardless of their partner, Midway, no longer existing. Should WB eventually win production rights, distribution will be no problem, as former distributor New Line Cinema, is now completely absorbed into Time Warner.