WarnerBros.

The latest legal wrangling around film rights and intellectual property has to do with the Mortal Kombat franchise.

Threshold Entertainment has filed a new breach of contract lawsuit against Warner Bros., according to THR, Esq., the Hollywood Reporter law blog, Threshold is contending that Warners "has avoided communicating with Threshold and has in bad faith prevented Threshold from utilizing the interest they have" in the franchise.

THR, Esq. states that Warners bought the property as part of its acquisition of Midway Games, which is now bankrupt. Threshold contends that because they had developed the characters and mythology, it received a "significant" portion of the rights, including a third picture. One suit had already been resolved over the rights, before news got out about Oren Uziel being attached as a screenwriter without involving Threshold.

The folks at Threshold are irked enough to seek punitive damages, specifically "an amount which, considering Warner's enormous worldwide wealth and income, is sufficient to punish Warner, to set an example and to deter further such wrongful behavior."

While Warners isn't commenting, it seems like Threshold is ready for some legal Mortal Kombat.

I don't know about you, but unless it's a film I love and must add to my library, I like to rent first. And I rent a lot of sci fi. As a Netflix member, this is going to be problematic when it comes to Warner Brothers films.

On Wednesday Warner Bros. and Netflix announced a deal that will delay rental releases on Netflix while increasing the number of Warners' catalog titles the mail-rental company can offer, and at a lower price (at least to Netflix, I doubt they're passing the savings on to members). In return for more films and a higher return on investment, Netflix rentals for Warner Bros. films will be delayed for 28 days.

The implications are mind boggling, although understandable. Warner will benefit by having 28 days of sales before the films are available on Netflix. Netflix and Warner Brothers' previous agreement ended more than a year ago. According to other reports from mid 2009, a similar window applies to Red Box and other DVD rental outlets as well.

This means if you want to wait to see The Book of Eli or the next Harry Potter on DVD, you'll have to shell out full price for it, or sit on your thumbs for four weeks before you can see it as a rental.

The reports state that it's a revenue neutral deal for Warner Brothers, but it seems like a lot of effort for no financial gain.

While Warner Bros. readies a few new DC comic adaptations, including The Green Lantern and maybe Wonder Woman, word is still out on whether we'll ever see The Flash get his own movie, too. I've never been a big fan of Mr. Flash and his skin-tight red and gold suit. Yeah, so you run fast -- what else you got for me? Perhaps that's why it's taking so long for Hollywood to dump a Flash movie into theaters, and maybe it's also why the proposed Flash video game was shelved. Whatever the reasons for delays and cancellations are, it looks like we may one day get our big-screen film featuring some hot up-and-coming actor running all over the damn place.

IGN ran a quote earlier this week from Charles Roven, who was involved as a producer with The Flash movie at one point. He claimed Warner Bros. didn't feel comfortable with the version they had -- that they wanted to take into "account the entire, rich DC character world" (which I read as: we want to do what Marvel is doing) -- and so that incarnation was thrown to the curb for the time being.

The next day, however, IGN received an email from the film's current screenwriter, Dan Mazeau, who assured the site that the Flash movie was still alive and well. He says, "The Flash has not been hobbled. Everything is moving forward as planned. I'm still writing the script. Geoff Johns is still consulting. Flash fans have no cause for concern, and -- IMO -- lots to be excited about." So there you go ... the wheels are turning (though maybe not as fast as The Flash would like them to turn).

While we wait for the film to piece itself together, check out some footage from the canceled video game after the jump. I think it looks boring, but then again I hate running.

After Warner Bros. abandoned the in-development He-Man and the Masters of the Universe film, everyone was waiting for where it might wind up. It looks like Columbia Pictures has picked it up, where the entire project will be rebuilt from scratch.

Ever since 2007, when this was first picked up as a live-action feature film, I've been trying to imagine what kind of movie we'd be looking at. Will the subject matter be taken pretty seriously, like they tried to do with the last live-action disaster, or will there be a tongue-in-cheek element to it. You have to admit, the subject matter is pretty ridiculous.

It would be interesting if they expanded on the concept. It's made quite clear that Eternia is a planet in the cartoon, and yet it always came down to the castle, He-Man's magic sword and Skeletor's inept henchmen. What did we expect -- after all, it was based on a toy line. But there's more that could be done with that concept, if they stretched their imaginations.

Maybe the story takes place in the vast future, and Eternia is a lost settlement of human travelers from Earth. Skeletor and his henchmen are either the results of genetic mutation or experimentation. Or is it better to leave well enough alone? I think some story grander and more ambitious than Skeletor trying to take Castle Grayskull to steal He-Man's powers is necessary here.