Nowadays, Mario is largely relegated to his own games - but that wasn't always the case. Back during the plumber's dominance in the '90s, Mario was everywhere: comics, TV shows, breakfast cereal - kids couldn't go 10 minutes without seeing Nintendo's mascot on some sort of product. Of course, one tends to stand out from the rest: the live-action Super Mario Bros. movie.
Watching Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo bounce through the Mushroom Kingdom probably sounded good on paper (somehow), but the movie was an unrivaled flop. It was so universally hated that any hope of seeing Mario back in theaters was crushed forever...or so we thought.
Buzzfeed has come into a number of different emails detailing negotiations between Sony and Nintendo executives. Despite being rivals in the gaming industry, it seems that Nintendo and Sony may be working on an upcoming project together: an all-new, animated Super Mario feature film.
Sony Producer Avi Arad (The Amazing Spider-Man) made it clear that the negotiations were moving forward. One of the emails said, "I am the proud father of mario the animated film [sic]," while another featured pictures of the Sony exec with Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto. While the rumors of the deal being finalized have since been debunked, Arad has confirmed that he has been in negotiations with Nintendo, saying that they're "just the beginning."
For those that grew up during the dark ages of the live-action Super Mario movie, the news is a huge revelation. Few ever expected Nintendo to return to Hollywood, despite numerous attempts to do so. Perhaps the most famous of these failed attempts was the Metroid film. What would have been a sci-fi action film never managed to make it past negotiations, and the rights to the Metroid film series would bounce between studios for decades. Other projects barely even made it that far before being shuttered entirely.
Of course, video games and films have never been the best of friends: between movies like DOOM and Alone in the Dark , it seems as if the two mediums were simply destined to remain separate. Then again, who knows? If Nintendo were to have a direct hand in an animated Super Mario movie, who's to say that it wouldn't turn out halfway decent?
As of now, it seems that any project involving the Big N is still extremely early in development. Basically, fans shouldn't expect a Mario movie out anytime soon. At the very least, a Super Mario film is still be years away. Even so, there's plenty to be excited about - hopefully, the plumber's return to the big screen goes a bit more smoothly than last time.
