Nintendo has revealed that they are working on a movie for The Legend of Zelda franchise – with Sony Pictures!
As reported by Video Games Chronicle, Shigeru Miyamoto shared this message:
“I have been working on the live-action film of The Legend of Zelda for many years now with Avi Arad-san, who has produced many mega hit films.
I have asked Avi-san to produce this film with me, and we have now officially started the development of the film with Nintendo itself heavily involved in the production. It will take time until its completion, but I hope you look forward to seeing it.”
Avi Arad is definitely someone who made his mark on pop culture, but not exactly one with a spotless record. He started out by joining Toy Biz in 1990, as a simple toy designer. Avi made his way up to become co-owner of the company alongside Isaac Perlmutter. It was in this capacity that he and Isaac took on Carl Icahn and Ron Perelman in bankruptcy court, to take ownership of Marvel Comics.
As one of two co-owners of Marvel, Avi led the company’s push towards licensing their properties to movies. He got involved all the way through Marvel launching its own film and entertainment production company, all the way through to their sale to Disney. Avi left Marvel in 2006 to found his own company.
Under Arad Productions, Avi continues to be involved in making Marvel’s movies licensed outside of Marvel Productions, including the Spider-Verse and Venom films. However, Avi’s output has also included several duds, such as Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures, 2017’s Ghost in the Shell, and, of course, Morbius.
Rumors that Arad wanted to be involved with making Nintendo movies, to be produced by Sony Pictures, have persisted for years. We reported on Arad’s attempts to produce a Mario movie, that was part of the giant Sony email leak.
Most recently, there were rumors that Nintendo was working out a deal with Universal to make a The Legend of Zelda film, following the success of The Super Mario Bros Movie.
We think it’s reasonable to believe that Nintendo and Miyamoto did talk to these companies about making a The Legend of Zelda film and Avi Arad simply won out among all of them. While some fans are worried about this news, we should remember that there was also a lot of skepticism about Illumination making The Super Mario Bros Movie.
Nintendo and Illumination proved those doubters wrong, and the secret was Miyamoto’s close involvement. We hope Miyamoto is similarly protective of this project, to make sure that it will also be something fans can be proud to share with their non-Nintendo fan friends and family.
