After months of speculation and insider talk, a Super Mario movie deal was struck between Nintendo and Illumination Entertainment. But Mario has had a rocky history with movies, specifically with the 1993 film Super Mario Bros. In short, the film was so bad, it was good. In other words, it wasn’t at all representative of the Mario brand, and Nintendo won’t shy away from pulling the plug if the new movie isn’t good.
Nintendo had a recent Q&A with investors and one of the subjects discussed was the upcoming film. Nintendo had actually been thinking about an animated movie for a while now, but Shigeru Miyamoto, the father of Super Mario Bros. and producer of the film, stated that making a game isn’t the same as making a movie.
“Interactive experiences are completely different from non-interactive media, and to make a movie I want a film expert to do the work,” Miyamoto said in regards to Illumination.
He stated that discussions with Illumination started more than two years ago with CEO Chris Meledandri. “Chris is extremely cost-conscious and time-conscious in his quest to make successful movies,” Miyamoto stated. If the film’s script turns out to be less exciting than they expect, it turns out that both Nintendo and Illumination may decide to back away from the film.
“We’ve talked together and share the feeling that if we can’t make something interesting we’ll just call it quits,” Miyamoto said. “But we’ve already met a number of times to hash out the screenplay, our talks together are progressing, and I hope to make an announcement once we’ve ironed out some things like the schedule.”
This in no way spells out ill omens for the future of the film. In fact, it may even show the two companies’ dedication to the project, as they will have to work that much harder to make a quality film that holds up to their self-imposed standards.
The unnamed Super Mario movie has no release date as of yet but is being worked on by Nintendo and Illuminations studios, the latter of which produced films such as Despicable Me and Minions.
