Nintendo has revolutionised the gaming industry more than once, but now it’s trying to do something insane: Make a great video game movie.
Mario is hitting the silver screen, it was announced Wednesday, with the help of Illumination, the studio behind “Despicable Me” and “Minions.”
Those of you still reeling from 1993’s “Super Mario Bros.” may be heartened to hear that Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of Mario, will serve as producer of the film. He’ll be joined by Chris Meledandri, who in addition to producing the aforementioned “Despicable Me” films was also executive producer of the original “Ice Age” and “Horton Hears a Who.”
Nintendo in a press release said it’s pursuing goals “of effectively leveraging its intellectual properties in mediums outside of video games,” which indicates we could get more movies and/or TV shows should this experiment prove successful.
It’s not the first we’ve heard of Nintendo on the big screen, as the company’s CEO, Tatsumi Kimishima, in 2016 said Nintendo was speaking to “multiple partners” about doing a film. “”That live-action film didn’t do particularly well at the box office,” he said in reference to the original 1993 Mario Bros. movie. “From now on we’d like to do things ourselves more than just license something.”
It comes along with more exciting news for Nintendo fans: Mario Kart is coming to your phones and tablets. Mario Kart Tour, a game designed for mobile platforms, will be released before the end of March 2019, the company announced Wednesday.
Mario is once again a hot property, with last year’s Super Mario Odyssey for the Nintendo Switch selling 9 million units in less than three months — and earning plenty of perfect scores from critics in the process. The Switch, which launched in March, managed to sell just under 15 million units before the year’s end, Nintendo announced Tuesday.
