There are a ton of great fan films out there. We love seeing fan projects and the talented folks that brings out exciting new content for their favorite IPs. However, these fan projects can oftentimes get killed off by IP owners. That is most likely what happened with a popular live-action Zelda fan film that would have entered production this April.
Thanks to Gamerant, we’re finding out today that Lost in Hyrule was just killed off. If you haven’t heard of this project, it was an upcoming fan film based on The Legend of Zelda. In particular, the movie was set to tell a new storyline that would take place after the events of both Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask.
It also looked like quite an ambitious project with talent and experience. For instance, you had Avi Lake taking on the role of Princess Zelda; previously, she was in the Netflix series A Series of Unfortunate Events. Meanwhile, Link would be portrayed by actor Chris Carpenter, who was also an award-winning filmmaker and was setting this project up.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t long ago that the Kickstarter campaign started with a goal of $30,000 to see this film come to life. After nearly reaching $24,000, the project was canceled. Without going into details, the project was simply announced to be canceled, with no funds being taken from the campaign.
We will comply with the wishes of Nintendo, Sony Pictures, or Arad Productions. This is Nintendo’s IP and if they decide to halt our production, we will. If that happens before the Kickstarter campaign is complete, then we will halt the campaign and no pledges will be collected. If they decide to halt our production after the Kickstarter is complete but before we film, then we will return every pledge to our backers – we won’t keep the money. Finally, if we are prevented from releasing the film after we have already shot it and used the money for production costs, then we will still fulfill every reward we can (other than publicly releasing the film). – Kickstarter Campaign
Of course, the production was anticipating a potential roadblock with Nintendo. In the campaign’s FAQ section, they noted that while they were hopeful to make this film, they would cease production if Nintendo got involved. So it looks like that’s more than likely what happened here, and that’s not too much of a surprise. Still, it’s a bummer for those involved with the project and those who funded the production to see it come to fruition.
