Chris Meledandri, the founder and CEO of Illumination, has denied a report from last week that his company and Universal Pictures are developing a “The Legend of Zelda” movie together.
Universal and Illumination are hot off the $1.3 billion box-office success of “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” which has become the highest-grossing film of the year to date.
Jeff Sneider broke the report last week that the studios are closing a ‘big deal’ with Nintendo to adapt their most iconic non-Mario franchise – ‘Zelda’ – for the big screen.
Appearing at the Annecy International Animation Festival this week, The Wrap spoke to Meledandri who was and asked about of Link was coming to the big screen soon. He shot down the report right away:
“I don’t know where that came from. I mean 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. But in terms of the specifics, that was just something that I’ve heard lots of rumors. This is just about what’s next between Nintendo and Illumination.”
Benjamin Renner, director of Illumination’s next film “Migration” added: “I see one rumor every week and this week’s rumor is, apparently, ‘Zelda’.”
The game series follows Link, the courageous Master Sword-wielding hero of the kingdom of Hyrule which also includes the wise Princess Zelda. On his adventures, Link clashes with the dark lord Ganondorf who seeks the power of a sacred relic known as the Triforce.
The most recent game in the series, “The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom,” hit stores last month and became the fastest-selling Nintendo video game of all time along with being the most critically acclaimed game of the year.
