Nintendo has revealed that the company is open to making movies based on its beloved games, following a 15-year hiatus from the silver screen.
An August 21 press release states a definitive incentive for Nintendo to move outside the realm of console-based entertainment, with a focus on "visual content production" (translation: film) and "character merchandising."
While a movie focused solely on one of Nintendo's IPs hasn't happened since the 1990 release of Super Mario Bros. – which currently holds a score of 16 percent on Rotten Tomatoes – Nintendo characters have made cameo appearances on the big screen since. The appearance of Mario Bros. universe antagonist Bowser in Disney's 2012 video game-themed Wreck It Ralph proved to be wildly popular among Nintendo fans. Donkey Kong, Mario and the dog from Duck Hunt made guest stints in Pixels earlier this year (despite the Adam Sandler vehicle's generally unfavorable reviews, director Chris Columbus considered the get a major coup).
While the official announcement only came out this month, the plan for Nintendo to bring some of its famous characters back to the movies has been in the works for a while. In an interview with Fortune at E3 2015 back in June, video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto – one of the leading creative forces at Nintendo – explained the limitless potential for combining video games with the silver screen:
"Because games and movies seem like similar mediums, people's natural expectation is we want to take our games and turn them into movies. [...] I've always felt video games, being an interactive medium, and movies, being a passive medium, mean the two are quite different. [...] As we look more broadly at what is Nintendo's role as an entertainment company, we're starting to think more and more about how movies can fit in with that — and we'll potentially be looking at things like movies in the future."
As the creator of some of Nintendo's (and the video game industry's) most popular franchises of all time – including Mario, Zelda, Donkey Kong and Star Fox – it seems like one of Nintendo's most popular leading players is completely on board. The only question left is which IP is ready for its close-up.
Via: Fortune
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