News Nintendo officially announces live-action Zelda film, produced by Shigeru Miyamoto and Avi Arad, directed by Wes Ball

[Yzz]

I honestly don't understand why Nintendo chooses mediocre studios to make their movies.

Because you can't simply go to Guillermo Del Toro and order him to make a Zelda movie, you need people who want to work in the project and that are available which is not a lot. The thing is that Zelda is not a franchise / narrative that can make a bunch of talented directors line up in droves. It might be popular in the gaming sphere and among many talented animators (Hirsch, maybe Tartakovsky, etc.), but I really think that most talented 'pop' filmmakers view LoZ in a very similar vein to Mario – a children's franchise with a thin plot that cannot work in the big screen.

As for Sony / Columbia and Illumination, I imagine it was because their respective cashcows – Spiderman and Despicable Me are being pushed to the limit already and they need a backup plan. The same cannot be said of DreamWorks, Warner Bros., Universal (live action) since those have a bigger inventory of exploitable franchises that is going to take years to fully milk.

 

[ILikeFeet]

I looked at this guy's wikipedia. Just a crazy mixed bag. This guy wrote the story of Rise of Skywalker? Ugh. Why choose him?

he didn't work on Rise, he worked on the previous version which was scrapped. probably union rules that he got credit

 

[BlackthornOrion]

Every person involved with this is filling me with existential dread. This might be even worse than Avi Arad for me, Jurassic World was awful.

well if it makes you feel any better, he's apparently also credited on the narrative masterpiece that was Rise of Skywalker ...

 

[Deleted member 2181]

I am a tad surprised that Aonuma doesn't seem to be involved at all, but I guess he has enough on his plate with the games.

I'd feel much better about it if Aounuma was involved. Or even Koizumi!

 

[AngryAlchemist]

I'll be honest, I wasn't really looking forward to a 3D animated Zelda movie either. When people started saying Illumination should do it, I knew it probably wouldn't have a unique art style and would be the equivalent of the Mario movie but with Zelda characters, a Zelda movie with the art style of his Mario Kart crossover. No thank you.

Anyways, it will probably be bad, and will probably also be very successful. Then people will act like it being a smash hit means it's good, and will champion another win for Nintendo's movie efforts.

 

[frog]

I looked at this guy's wikipedia. Just a crazy mixed bag. This guy wrote the story of Rise of Skywalker? Ugh. Why choose him?

"Story by" credit and this guy's long history with Colin Trevorrow suggests that he helped pen the Duel of the Fates script before Lucasfilm fired Trevorrow

 

[Gingerbread Man]

It's never going to happen, but:

• fantasy;
• IP aimed both to children and adults;
• time travel;
• clever puzzles.

... Steven Moffat would be a perfect fit as the writer of the Zelda movie.

 

[P4bl0]

 

[lattjeful]

Maze Runner's director? Jurassic World's writer? Morbius's producer? Good God...

Though I will admit, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes does look quite promising. Maybe the directing won't be bad..?

 

[ILikeFeet]

well if it makes you feel any better, he's apparently also credited on the narrative masterpiece that was Rise of Skywalker ...

he didn't work on that movie

 

[9-Volt]

No Universal this time? I hope nothing happened between them and Nintendo. I still want my Zelda expansion at Nintendo Land.

 

[uncleoptimus]

Miyamoto has earned this y'all.

If he wants live-action Zelda, working w/ Sony, with like Justin Bieber as Link and Cate Blanchett as Zelda and Jack Black as singing Ganon he deserves that shot

Real talk, Mario (speaking strictly on the execution and vibes, obv box office was bananas) largely delivered, and thats staves off my skepticism for now.

Avi Arad's productions have been all over the spectrum:

Avi Arad | Producer, Writer, Music Department

Known for: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Morbius, X-Men

www.imdb.com

With Nintendo/Miyamoto wielding final say on every decision, I think we can be cautiously not terrified.

 

[Dardan Sandiego]

Variety reports that the screenplay will come from Jurassic World's Derek Connolly.

They're really cooking nothing here.

 

[Mango]

live action

Just kill me now

 

[Mekanos]

It's never going to happen, but:

• fantasy;
• IP aimed both to children and adults;
• time travel;
• clever puzzles.

... Steven Moffat would be a perfect fit as the writer of the Zelda movie.

Doesn’t everyone hate his guts now?

 

[YoboD]

well if it makes you feel any better, he's apparently also credited on the narrative masterpiece that was Rise of Skywalker

At times like this we really need a solemn ‘yeah…’ react button.

 

[Danny]

A Zelda movie makes all the recent remake rumours interesting, Nintendo will probably want to release a new 3D Zelda game around the time the movie releases, which makes a Ocarina of time remake to Switch 2 interesting, especially if the movie will be related to Ocarina of time storywise.

 

[MisterSpo]

The creative team behind the film makes sense if you're looking at it as a financial proposition; it's a team that's managed to create box office hits for that large cross section of families, teens and adults across their oeuvre, and that's the kind of large audience Zelda can aim for.

But it absolutely is baffling and concerning from a quality perspective. And I do mean baffling; Nintendo held Tears of the Kingdom back for 12 months because they wanted to polish it and iron out technical issues. They refused to rush Zelda in times of financial trouble because they recognise the long term prestige and reputation of the series is more important than short term profit. I can't quite square how Nintendo arrived at this directing, producing and writing team with that commitment to quality in mind. Sure, it's not like you're going to get Oscar bait Zelda, but we've seen some stunning, high quality animated films over the years and I always thought that would be the way forward for Zelda as a film; whether they went for a How to Train Your Dragon, Spiderverse or Ghibli approach, whatever, that made sense to me.

Zelda is Nintendo's prestige product and the two open world titles confirmed that in a stratospheric way. Either Nintendo think a middle of the road critical reception to the film won't matter so long as it's popular (like the bet I think they made with Super Mario film), or they're confident enough that the ideas that have been kicked around between Arad and Miyamoto in the last few years will result in a film good enough to not damage Zelda.

 

[Dardan Sandiego]

If I close my eyes I can still have the Cartoon Saloon Zelda movie directed by Tomm Moore that I always wanted.

 

[Mekanos]

Movies like How To Train Your Dragon and Spider-Verse are still seen as kids movies. Nintendo definitely doesn’t want that perception for TLOZ. And there’s very few American studios in general that would green light a serious and dramatic animated fantasy movie. Unless you really do want Illumination to tackle it…

Ghibli was never touching this movie in a million years. They’d never sacrifice total control to Nintendo and 2D anime doesn’t have the same global appeal.

 

[TomNookYankees]

This is going to make a shit ton of money. I'll put it out there right now that's how I feel about it.

Generations of people know Zelda/Link, it's going to be huge and people are going to shit their pants when they see a Ghibli style Zelda world x Lord of the Rings world brought to live action.

With Harry Potter done, there is a wide opening for a new big ticket fantasy film series. I think this could be bigger than Mario, animation is limited in terms of you're always going to have a cross section of adults that refuse to go see an animated movie. I tried to drag a couple of my friends to see Spider-Verse last summer, and to no success, they simply refuse to watch animated films in theaters. But they would see a live action Spider-Man no problem.

Except this film isnt getting a LOTR or Harry Potter sized budget. It's getting a budget much closer to Morbius or Venom.

 

[Thorakai]

this is all leading to a Zelda x Mario, Roger Rabbit / Space Jam style crossover BAY BAY

 

[lattjeful]

The creative team behind the film makes sense if you're looking at it as a financial proposition; it's a team that's managed to create box office hits for that large cross section of families, teens and adults across their oeuvre, and that's the kind of large audience Zelda can aim for.

But it absolutely is baffling and concerning from a quality perspective. And I do mean baffling; Nintendo held Tears of the Kingdom back for 12 months because they wanted to polish it and iron out technical issues. They refused to rush Zelda in times of financial trouble because they recognise the long term prestige and reputation of the series is more important than short term profit. I can't quite square how Nintendo arrived at this directing, producing and writing team with that commitment to quality in mind. Sure, it's not like you're going to get Oscar bait Zelda, but we've seen some stunning, high quality animated films over the years and I always thought that would be the way forward for Zelda as a film; whether they went for a How to Train Your Dragon, Spiderverse or Ghibli approach, whatever, that made sense to me.

Zelda is Nintendo's prestige product and the two open world titles confirmed that in a stratospheric way. Either Nintendo think a middle of the road critical reception to the film won't matter so long as it's popular (like the bet I think they made with Super Mario film), or they're confident enough that the ideas that have been kicked around between Arad and Miyamoto in the last few years will result in a film good enough to not damage Zelda.

No shade to Miyamoto or anything, but isn't he pretty far removed from Zelda these days? I'd feel much more confident about the bolded if it was Arad and Aunoma tbh. Though I get why it would be Miyamoto instead, for a variety of reasons.

 

[Leo]

I mean, One Piece of all things worked so, who knows.

 

[YoboD]

If I close my eyes I can still have the Cartoon Saloon Zelda movie directed by Tomm Moore that I always wanted.

It’s so depressing we’ll never get this. Their whole style is so suited to a Zelda movie, I genuinely can’t think of another studio that would be a better choice.

Ah well, gotta chase those Hollywood big bucks I guess.

 

[oracion]

Now we know why TPHD and WWHD have not yet been released on the Switch.

 

[rokero]

This is the worst scenario for me I don't think it'll work as a live action I hope I eat crow though

 

[Deleted member 1978]

The creative team behind the film makes sense if you're looking at it as a financial proposition; it's team that's managed to create box office hits for that large cross section of families, teens and adults across their oeuvre, and that's the kind of large audience Zelda can aim for.

But it absolutely is baffling and concerning from a quality perspective. And I do mean baffling; Nintendo held Tears of the Kingdom back for 12 months because they wanted to polish it and iron out technical issues. They refused to rush Zelda in times of financial trouble because they recognise the long term prestige and reputation of the series is more important than short term profit. I can't quite square how Nintendo arrived at this directing, producing and writing team with that commitment to quality in mind. Sure, it's not like you're going to get Oscar bait Zelda, but we've seen some stunning, high quality animated films over the years and I always thought that would be the way forward for Zelda as a film; whether they went for a How to Train Your Dragon, Spiderverse or Ghibli approach, whatever, that made sense to me.

Zelda is Nintendo's prestige product and the two open world titles confirmed that in a stratospheric way. Either Nintendo think a middle of the road critical reception to the film won't matter so long as it's popular (like the bet I think they made with Super Mario film), or they're confident enough in the ideas that have been kicked around between Arad and Miyamoto in the last few years will result in a film good enough to not damage Zelda.

Nintendo's press statement explicitly called out the fact that they are responsible for majority of film's financing, which is an indication that they have every intention of controlling significant aspects of production. The individual characteristics of the production team being assembled probably is less important than their capability to comply with Nintendo's editorial decisions.

 

[space_dragon]

I always thought 2D animation would be amazing for a Zelda movie. But, I guess we'll see.

 

[Lord Azrael]

Dam. Megaton

Think they'll show it in a Direct like they did Mario, or would that be too weird

 

[Giratina]

Don't think I have high hopes for this.

 

[Octavian]

I don't have any beef with Wes Bell; Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes looks great and he's directing it. But they got the writing team of the first three movies back, so he's working with good material.

Getting the Jurassic World & Rise of Skywalker writer is the real mark against this. Almost ensures this is going to be terrible.

 

[Suswave]

Why are people thinking this will be bad? Was the Mario movie by Illumination bad?

yes

 

[Machrider]

Except this film isnt getting a LOTR or Harry Potter sized budget. It's getting a budget much closer to Morbius or Venom.

LOTR didn't have that massive of a budget for its time, this will have at minimum a $150 million dollar budget probably, that's where Sony is coming in.

Likely Nintendo got a great deal from Sony too, lol, because I'm sure Universal, Warner, even Disney would've jumped at the chance to make this.

 

[Zeroth]

Because you can't simply go to Guillermo Del Toro and order him to make a Zelda movie, you need people who want to work in the project and that are available which is not a lot. The thing is that Zelda is not a franchise / narrative that can make a bunch of talented directors line up in droves. It might be popular in the gaming sphere and among many talented animators (Hirsch, maybe Tartakovsky, etc.), but I really think that most talented 'pop' filmmakers view LoZ in a very similar vein to Mario – a children's franchise with a thin plot that cannot work in the big screen.

As for Sony / Columbia and Illumination, I imagine it was because their respective cashcows – Spiderman and Despicable Me are being pushed to the limit already and they need a backup plan. The same cannot be said of DreamWorks, Warner Bros., Universal (live action) since those have a bigger inventory of exploitable franchises that is going to take years to fully milk.

The impression I got here is that folks only want people who worked in extremely successful movies/franchises, because they perceive Zelda to deserve this kind of treatment. Yet, like you pointed out, the perception of the franchise outside the gaming scenario can be quite different.

Sincerely, there are plenty of bad movies that came from directors/writers/producers who did amazing stuff, and similarly there are many movies that are considered good and came from directors/writers/producers who did less than stellar stuff. Given the complexity of making movies and how Nintendo is taking the reigns to make this happen, I am doubtful they would let a Zelda movie that is not up to their standards be released and much less not have faith in the people they are assigning to this project.

 

[Mango]

You know I wonder if this what Serkan Toto was referring to.

 

[SpaceGodzilla]

Except this film isnt getting a LOTR or Harry Potter sized budget. It's getting a budget much closer to Morbius or Venom.

Says who?

 

[Machrider]

I didn't think Rise of Skywalker was poorly written in the sense that if it was just a regular space fantasy non-Star Wars action adventure movie, it would've been ... fine. The writing is OK.

TRoS is a poor Star Wars movie because lore aspects being disappointing, but those are likely JJ Abram's calls. Zelda doesn't have like the weight of 8 previous movies to have to pay off.

Jurassic World is fine too, it's the 2nd best Jurassic Park movie and its box office speaks for itself.

 

[Pillydillsy]

HUH, WHAT, HUH? WHY WAS IT ANNOUNCED SO RANDOMLY ON TWITTER NINTENDO I CANT

 

[P4bl0]

Detective Link

 

[grobla123]

Zelda move with the producer of Spiderverse, But its live action. monkey paw finger curls

I would have much preferred animated but live action does put butts on seats.
Link is going to speak guys. Mario spoke, Link will speak.

These picks are very appropriate based on their recent experiences, but have a mixed overall quality to their movies. Not unlike using Illumination for Mario. Arguably there is a better history here.

I could see some editing and scene composition/set pieces be a bit like the Maze Runner movies.

Oof at the writer, Jurassic World at least had set pieces that may be in line with Zelda though.

Unpopular maybe? Star wars 8 was really setting up well for a sequel, it’s a big shame all that was scrapped and we got 9. I imagine the early work for 9 may have been pretty decent.

Avi Arad

Exec producer
Gamba: Ganba to nakamatachi (2015) looks cute, but I have no idea about it
Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) fine
Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019) fine
Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) good

Producer
Ghost in the Shell (2017) bad
Venom (2018) bad, but made a lot of money
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) excellent
Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021) bad, but made a lot of money
Uncharted (2022) mediocre
Morbius (2022) lmao
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023) excellent, man could you imagine if this movie was animated instead?
Borderlands (2024) low expectations, could be a good sign to see how the Zelda movie may go.
Kraven the Hunter (2024) TBD (expecting Venom-tier)

I'd say Uncharted is the best one to look at, could be a similar vibe, puzzles, ruins, exploration, young inexperienced kid coming in to their own. Not super inspiring though, hopefully it turns out better than that.

Hopefully Avi manages to insert some modern spiderman level quality in to this. Looking at this list, Tom Holland would unironically be a safe pick for Link, as he's worked with the producer on similar roles in the past, although he wasn't a great Drake.

Wes Bell director
Maze Runner- Poorish
Kingdom of the planet of the apes- Looks solid so far, hope it turns out good.

 

[Machrider]

Also Playstation 5 x Legend of Zelda movie Blu-Ray bundle when?

 

[JoshuaJSlone]

Why live action? The Mario Movie was amazing and I would have loved consistency with the NCU.

Why consistency among the movies, when there's not consistency among the visual styles of the games themselves?

What about that guy who played in the Witcher show? Can’t he be Link

Jaskier is more the Link type than either of the Geralts.

how Nintendo is gonna do a live action movie of the Legend of Zelda, knowing Link never talks?

Mario never said much besides "Wahoo!" and "Spaghetti..." either.

Deadline reports that the screenplay will come from Jurassic World's Derek Connolly.

Notable that Detective Pikachu screenplay is among his credits.

It’s so depressing we’ll never get this. Their whole style is so suited to a Zelda movie, I genuinely can’t think of another studio that would be a better choice.

We got styles as disparate as Wind Waker and Twilight Princess in the same generation. Never say never.

 

[dolpic]

The Mario movie at least had some nice colors and animation. This has absolutely nothing going for it

 

[Scrawnton]

Live action? Ready for disappointment....

 

[Machrider]

I could still see an animated Zelda movie at some point much like Spider-Man has live action and animated film lines, the animated version could cross into a Smash Bros. type thing with the Mario movie universe as a base.

But this is Nintendo's best shot at having a billion+ live action film franchise, think it was too hard to pass that potential up.

 

[SpaceGodzilla]

My hype lives or dies with planet of the apes next year

 

[entut1]

I work in the industry, I know how the budgets work haha. The press release is very clear Nintendo is funding "more than half." That's code for "they're in charge." Sony will help with resources, knowledge in the logistics of actually making it, and a release strategy. Sony has the infrastructure, but Nintendo is driving the ship. Sony is putting in the money up front to be able to take a piece of the pie when it hits big at the box office.

remind me, but did the Mario PR have the more than half thing? because I still kind of feel Illumination definitely had their influence with that one

 

[Síriocaz]

Y'all remember the April Fools thing IGN did like 15 years ago? That was good for what it was. Imagine something like that with the production values of the first season of The Witcher (which was the only one I watched). Could be good, the live-action angle doesn't disappoint me at all.

The creative team is definitely disappointing, not because they don't know what they do but on the contrary, they know how to make the most unadulterated stuff that jacks it up the box office. Connolly for example may have co-written the World trilogy, but he also had the same role in Safety Not Guaranteed, which is a fantastic film (in my opinion) that shows that the guy understands how to write a good script. He learnerd the dark arts later on.

Not too much comment right now from my part, though, this thing is probably like 2 or 3 years away.

 

[Pillydillsy]

Sony and Nintendo collaborating is crazy. Going into the theatre and seeing Nintendo and Sony credited on the same project will be something to behold