Since the original Mortal Kombat was one of the first films I watched in a theater with surround sound, I hold a special place in my heart for this franchise. I was a big fan of the video games growing up, but, like everyone else, was extremely let down by the films -- most notably, the sequel: Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (or Mortal Kombat: You People Are Seriously F**king Up Some Really Cool Characters). A third Mortal Kombat flick has been hanging around development hell for awhile now, circling a group of writers (because it will take at least 50 scribes to make this one really suck), yet there's been very little movement on it.

This latest news comes straight from the film's (tentatively titled Mortal Kombat: Devastation) director, mink. Yes, that's his name -- mink. The guy has been trolling the IMDb message boards, telling fans what his plans are for the next film. Apparently, it will not be a prequel (as once discussed), but instead will go the Batman Begins route and start all over again. This news backs up info sent in to Moviehole which suggested that these delays are due to writers turning in drafts, which then go through several different avenues before winding up back in another writer's hands. Rinse, repeat ... and so on. Though no casting has officially taken place, mink confirmed that he has met with both Christopher Lambert (Lord Rayden) and Robin Shou (Liu Kang), but -- and here's my opinion -- they should just bring on a whole new cast, try and nab a few names and attack this puppy with all they've got. Then again, when the director notes they have "a staff of writers" working on it, that cannot be a good sign of things to come.

My earliest recollections of the Castlevania video game series are of a little guy side-scrolling through a haunted castle, stopping occasionally to whip a skeleton/ghost/vampire and climb a whole lot of staircases. I loved it. And even though I know next to nothing about the later Castlevania games (and there are several), I'm still fairly psyched for Rogue's new big-screen version to hit the scene.

What's that? Castlevania is being written and directed by Paul W.S. Anderson? The man who gave us Mortal Kombat, Resident Evil and Alien vs. Predator? And Soldier and Event Horizon? Yikes ... Hey wait, I really like Event Horizon! And Resident Evil (PART ONE!) And I certainly don't think that Anderson is as bad a filmmaker as the rantier fanboys seem to think he is. And, to his credit, Mr. Anderson is approaching this Castlevania flick with what I consider to be a very solid perspective. "You could also call this movie Dracula Begins," says Anderson as he practices his fan-friendly sound-bites and settles into direct what could be a fairly fine horror/adventure-type flick. (Just please don't go the PG-13 route. Please.)

For those who've done things other than play video games for the past 16 years, Castlevania "focuses on the duel across the centuries between Dracula and the vampire-hunting Belmont family, played out within Dracula's vast, labyrinthine castle." Yep, the Rogue folks are most definitely thinking "franchise" on this one. Fingers crossed, vamp-fans!

And yes: I called Anderson the "video game movie king." Any five random frames of Resident Evil are better than the complete and collected works of Uwe Boll -- and who else out there makes these movies?

Those gore-lovin' knuckleheads over at Bloody-Disgusting.com spent a few days on the set of Resident Evil: Extinction (surrounded by women like Milla Jovovich, Sienna Guillory and Ali Larter, those lucky bastards) and while they haven't come back with their full set report (which, frankly, doesn't even interest me all that much), they've gleaned a few choice nuggets from the cast and crew members.

Oded Fehr will be returning for RE3, and he dropped a vague little tidbit regarding a certain looming sequel: "From what I know ... they're writing one that's totally different, in a different time. Brendan (Fraser) and Rachel (Weisz) are in it." Hmph. The Mummy Returns Again? We'll see.

Stopping by to chat with Ms. Larter, the BD.com boys learned that she will not be reprising her role in the upcoming sequel to House on Haunted Hill -- even though she signed on to star in the second sequel to Resident Evil. Oh well, moving on, the gorehounds hit the mother lode when they sat down to chat with producer Jeremy Bolt, a guy who's made a lot of movies with the fanboy-controversial Paul W.S. Anderson. (Anderson directed Mortal Kombat, Event Horizon, Soldier, Resident Evil, and Alien vs. Predator, if you must know.) The partners' next project will be a "less parody, more reality TV" remake of Death Race 2000, an NES-to-celluloid rendition of Castlevania, and a sequel to this movie, which looks so sinfully bad that I can't wait to see it.

We love our geeky older brothers over at Joystiq, but I can't help but read this post, by Blake Snow, and gently suggest that they've been, well, snowed. Blake points to this article in Way I Play which claims that a feature film version of Pong is currently in production. Way I Play "finds" a few hilarious quotes, including this one from alleged Pong: The Movie director Paul W.S. Anderson, the guy behind Mortal Kombat: "“There will be awesome hand to hand combat, I can tell you that much,” blurted Anderson. “If you’ve played PONG, it will be like discovering it for the first time all over again. If you’ve never played PONG, it will be like discovering it twice."" "Anderson" goes on to say that Antonio Banderas has already been casting in the lead ... er, leads. “Antonio Banderas like you’ve never seen him before. He will play both ‘padz,’ as we’re calling them. Brothers separated at birth and trained to eliminate the other. Banderas was the only one I would consider for the job."

Now, things in Hollywood have been so messed up lately, that we could see why the Joystiqers might believe this – after all, that Pacman item from last week hasn't been proven wrong yet. But let me submit two small bits of evidence that may convince you that Pong: The Movie, is not, actually, going to happen. Ever. First off, the Way I Play article quotes statements made in a Variety article ... which, as far I can tell, doesn't actually exist. Somewhat more damning: the fact that the article is clearly filed under "Satire". Sorry boys – it was fun while it lasted, but it looks like you've been pong'd.