super mario

Photo via JD Hancock/Flickr (CC-BY)

A Super Mario Bros. movie is reportedly in the works from the makers of ‘Despicable Me’

The deal would be for one Super Mario Bros. movie.

 

Michelle Jaworski

Parsec

Posted on Nov 14, 2017   Updated on May 22, 2021, 11:12 am CDT

Nintendo is close to signing a licensing deal with Illumination Entertainment—the animation studio behind Despicable Me and Minions—to bring an animated Super Mario Bros. movie to the big screen.

The deal, according to a new report from the Wall Street Journal, has been in the works for more than a year. The animated movie would be released by Universal, which handles finances and the release of Illumination films and has a previous relationship with Nintendo that includes creating Nintendo-themed lands at Universal Studios.

Nintendo wants to have a hand in creating the animated Super Mario Bros. movie, and it will likely have Super Mario Bros. creator Shigeru Miyamoto on hand as a producer of the film.

So far, the deal between Illumination and Nintendo is for only one film, but that could change.

There hasn’t been a Nintendo film since 1993’s widely-panned Super Mario Bros. starring Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo, although Nintendo has received its fair share of offers since then. But Illumination has had a number of its on its hands over the past several years, and the move to animation could tackle elements that might not be possible in live-action. Plus, as sales for Mario properties on the Nintendo Switch and other devices show, there’s still a potential audience for a Mario movie.

H/T Wall Street Journal

Share this article
*First Published: Nov 14, 2017, 12:05 pm CST