With $1.3 billion in box-office, Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment’s “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” has become the highest-grossing film of the year to date.
Now, Jeff Sneider on The Hot Mic reports that the studios are closing a ‘big deal’ with Nintendo for a film based on “The Legend of Zelda” franchise.
In April, Mario and Zelda creator Shigeru Miyamoto told a Japanese news outlet that there was “no doubt” Nintendo would make more films in the wake of the success of ‘Mario’, which Miyamoto produced. That box office success could cost Universal with the studio expected to pay Nintendo quite well for the rights to adapt “Zelda”.
Like with ‘Mario,’ it’s expected Universal’s Illumination will develop the animated Zelda movie as the “next big Illumination-Nintendo franchise”. Miyamoto was quite hands-on with the production of the ‘Mario’ film and would potentially be so again with a ‘Zelda’ film.
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 videogame of all time – selling ten million copies in its first three days. It has also become the most critically acclaimed game of the year.
