We know this will be hard to believe, but there is a huge rumor that Sony Pictures has nabbed the rights to a Super Mario Bros movie, with Avi Arad signed on as producer.
This information comes from the huge email leak Sony Pictures suffered from a hacker group a few days back, which has also leaked other projects in the works.
The emails indicate that it is Avi Arad who is pursuing Nintendo for the rights to Mario movies, and has been doing so for several years. Avi referred to himself as “the proud father of Mario the animated film [sic]”, and named Genndy Tartakovsky as a possible director. Avi enthusiastically emailed another Sony exec that he could make three to four movies from the Mushroom Kingdom. It also seems that the film would be published, not by Sony directly, but subsidiary TriStar.
Avi Arad’s original claim to fame was CEO of Toy Biz, to become the eventual owner of Marvel Comics, and ultimately, the architect to Marvel’s road to mainstream fame and success, including founding film studio Marvel Entertainment and devising the five year plan for building up the Avengers movie.
In turn, Genndy Tartakovsky is most famous as the creator of animated series Dexter’s Laboratory, Samurai Jack, and Star Wars: Clone Wars. He was also director for Adam Sandler CG film Hotel Transylvania.
When asked for follow up, both Sony and Nintendo declined requests for comment, and Avi Arad himself has explained that no deal has been finalized. Genndy Tartakovsky has also replied that he is not involved with the project.
Unfortunately, this leak may jeopardize negotiations, and may ironically ruin the chances that the film could be made. For now, we can only hope for the best.
