The dissolution of Midway as we know it has taken a new twist in a lawsuit from Lawrence Kasanoff. As reported on Game Politics, the producer is requesting that the court preserve certain IP rights concerning the Mortal Kombat series.
Kasanoff, and his company Threshold Entertainment, helped produce both Mortal Kombat live-action movies plus the animated TV show. He wants to retain the rights to continue making film and television projects based on the franchise.
"The Mortal Kombat series, as it stands today, is far more a creation of Threshold and Kasanoff than of Midway," claims the suit by Kasanoff. "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."
The suit says that the Mortal Kombat franchise has grossed over $4 billion dollars during its lifetime. He is seeking to have the sale of various Mortal Kombat assets to Warner Bros. blocked.
While it's difficult to say if this suit has any merit, the contention that Kasanoff and his company did more to build up Mortal Kombat than the creators at Midway is laughable at best.
