IndustryGamers - Informing the Games Industry

Mario, Zelda Still Drawing Big Interest From Hollywood

Posted March 23, 2010 by James Brightman

Movies based on video games, with a few exceptions, have been mediocre at best and many have just been awful. Even so, a number of these game-based movies have been quite profitable, and that's probably one of the main reasons Hollywood keeps looking to the video games space for inspiration. There's a lot of fantastic intellectual property in the games industry, and it's hard to argue against the fact that Nintendo has some of the best IP in the world.

Nintendo obviously doesn't want Mario to be violated like this again...

It comes as little surprise then that Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime recently stated that there's interest "all the time" from Hollywood executives in franchises like Mario, Zelda and Metroid. Speaking with the LA Times, Fils-Aime commented, "The message [in response from us] is, 'Thank you for the interest.' There have been certain [people] that we have talked in more detail with. But I think in the end, because we are a content company and are passionate about our franchises, it will be few and far between that actual deals are done to bring our franchises to life in a different way. These are our children."

It's probably for the best that Nintendo is so protective of its franchises. We certainly don't need to be subjected to another Super Mario Bros. film.  That said, we could see how certain franchises, if handled with extreme care, could be turned into acceptable movies. Metroid, for instance, is already in the popular sci-fi genre and would be easier for some Hollywood studio to adapt to the silver screen.

James Brightman has been covering the games industry since 2003 and has been an avid gamer ever since the days of Atari and Intellivision. He was previously the EIC of GameDaily Biz.