Nintendo
The Legend of Zelda live-action movie confirmed by Nintendo
Nintendo continues to look for new ways to expand its brands beyond consoles, and after many rumors, makes a movie of The Legend of Zelda official.
After the success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie among fans and the box office (highest-grossing video game movie in history), Nintendo is looking to bring another of its flagship products to the big screen and has announced that its next franchise will be The Legend of Zelda.
Hyrule comes to the big screen
The announcement came today through a press release on the Nintendo of Japan website revealed the Japanese company’s intentions to develop a live-action movie based on one of its most important franchises. Nintendo’s objective, as per the press release is to create “new opportunities to have people from around the world to access the world of entertainment which Nintendo has built.”
The movie will be produced by the creator of the series himself, Shigeru Miyamoto - Representative Director and Fellow of Nintendo - along with Avi Arad, the product behind several superhero movies such as Spider-Man 2, Iron Man, The Amazing Spider-Man, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, among others, based on comic books and video games.
There are no story or cast details yet, but Wes Ball, responsible for The Maze Runner trilogy and the upcoming Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, is already attached as director. The film will be co-financed between Nintendo and Sony Pictures, with Nintendo funding more than 50% of the film.
Rumors of a The Legend of Zelda movie
Earlier this year, following the success of his relationship with Illumination, rumors began to circulate that Shigeru Miyamoto was already working on an animated The Legend of Zelda movie with the studio that helped make The Super Mario Bros. Movie. At the time, Illumination founder and CEO Chris Meledandri denied the rumors, saying “I can understand how people would surmise all sorts of things because obviously, we’ve had a great experience working together. My relationship with Nintendo now includes being on their board of directors, so I understand how people can surmise these things”.
Of course, the rumor of this movie with Illumination ended up being false, and now it remains to be seen how Nintendo and Sony Pictures will work together to bring Link, Zelda and Ganon to the big screen.