Building upon the success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Nintendo has announced a partnership with Sony to create a live-action The Legend of Zelda flick.
According to a press release from the Japanese gaming company, Zelda creator and Nintendo Director Shigeru Miyamoto and film producer Avi Arad from Arad Productions Inc. will produce the untitled feature, with Wes Ball directing the production. Nintendo and Sony will share financing responsibilities, with Nintendo fronting half of the cost; Sony will also handle worldwide theatrical distribution.
No other details regarding the cast, plot, or release date were mentioned.
The Legend of Zelda is one Nintendo’s most popular game franchises, with 20 games (not counting remakes) spanning 30 decades and multiple consoles. The most recent release, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (pictured at top) set a record for the fastest Zelda game sold at 10 million copies within three days of launch.
In many of the games, hero Link must save Princess Zelda from evil forces, though this isn’t always the case. Link is noted as a silent protagonist, never saying a word in any of the games he’s appeared in, aside from grunts and screaming. It will be interesting to see how the filmmakers handle this as opposed to Mario, who voiced up until this year by Charles Martinet (and Chris Pratt in The Super Mario Bros. Movie).
Films adapted from popular video games have varying success — The Super Mario Bros. Movie (which grossed $1,362,015,510 USD worldwide), Detective Pikachu, and Sonic the Hedgehog were well received by audiences, whereas the 1993 Super Mario Bros. movie and the 2001 Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within were more of a miss.
Source: Nintendo press release
© Nintendo
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