Nintendo and Illumination Entertainment are teaming up to produce an animated Mario movie, Nintendo announced Wednesday night.
On Twitter, Nintendo revealed that the two companies would be partners in the endeavor, with Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto and Illumination CEO Chris Meledandri serving as the film’s producers. Illumination is the animation studio that produced Despicable Me and Minions.
Nintendo and Illumination are partnering on a movie starring Mario, co-produced by Shigeru Miyamoto and Chris Meledandri! pic.twitter.com/wVRPLIzcGJ
— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) February 1, 2018
The tweet from Nintendo confirms a November 2017 Wall Street Journal report revealing that Nintendo and Illumination were close to agreeing to a deal to bring an animated movie starring Mario to the big screen. Universal, Illumination’s parent company, will release the film, according to a report from Reuters.
Although there is no release date attached to the animated Mario movie, it would be the first Mario film in at least 20 years, after 1993’s live-action Super Mario Bros. But as sales for Super Mario Odyssey, the most recent Super Mario Bros. game, demonstrate, there is still a large market for a new Mario movie. And with its films making more than $2.1 billion at the box office, Illumination has a proven track record.