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Report: Nintendo And Universal In Talks About Making Animated Super Mario Movie
Nintendo and Universal are in talks about bringing Mario back to the big screen, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal.
The article states that Illumination Entertainment, the company behind both Despicable Me and Minions, is close to reaching a deal with Universal Pictures and Nintendo to create an animated Super Mario Bros. film. The previous and only feature length movie starring Mario was 1993's Super Mario Bros., which starred Bob Hoskins.
Nintendo already has a deal with Universal to open up a Nintendo Land section in select Universal Studios theme parks, which will include rides based off franchises such as Donkey Kong and Mario Kart. The first of these theme park areas is opening up in Osaka to coincide with Japan's hosting of the 2020 Olympic Games.
For more on Mario, read our review of Super Mario Odyssey here.
[Source: Wall Street Journal via Kotaku]
Our Take
Universal is one of the largest film studios in the world, and Illumination Entertainment's recent animated movies have been incredibly profitable. This might actually be a great fit for a Super Mario movie, despite the poor track record of video game movies in the past. However, it's good to keep in mind that these are early talks, and no confirmed deal has been made yet. Whether this project comes to fruition or not remains to be seen.
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