Thanks to the recent quarterly briefing from Nintendo about their sales data for the Switch and beyond, there was plenty to talk about. But the thing that everyone is focused on is the announcement by Shigeru Miyamoto that a live-action Legend of Zelda movie is coming and that some of the key slots have already been filled. For example, Miyamoto and Ari Avad will co-produce the film, while Wes Bell will direct. The film is being made alongside Sony Pictures, and both Nintendo and Sony are splitting the bill for the production. Despite some of these announcements, fans are rightfully concerned.
After all, while the “video game curse” regarding adaptations has slowly been breaking, it’s been under VERY specific circumstances. For example, when The Pokemon Company made a film about Detective Pikachu, it was a mix of live-action and animation, the same as the films with Sonic The Hedgehog. This film will be primarily live-action via its characters, and the monsters will be CGI more than likely. During the Q&A where Shigeru Miyamoto talked about the movie, which has now been released thanks to Nintendo, the franchise creator revealed how he and Ari Avad have been talking about this for some time:
“Regarding the live-action film of The Legend of Zelda, I know we face an extremely high hurdle in producing a film that will not disappoint the global fan base. With this challenge in mind, I have been discussing this project with Avi Arad, Chairman of Arad Productions Inc., for about 10 years. Movies are just like games, in that you need to spend a lot of time working on them until you get to something you’re satisfied with. Movies therefore need sponsors who can lend their full support until completion. For the production of our movies, Nintendo itself acts as a sponsor. To produce the movie, we were able to assemble a group of people who are willing to commit time to the production until we come up with something we feel confident about.”
Miyamoto cited how the Mario movie worked because he and the head of Illumination were able to have creative control and push things until they worked, and he’s hoping to do the same here.
But again, the question is how they’ll do in the live-action setting. Even more than Mario’s movie, everything will be scrutinized, especially if they have link talk for a good period of time.
No release window for the movie has been given, but that might be for the best currently.
