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News Nintendo officially announces live-action Zelda film, produced by Shigeru Miyamoto and Avi Arad, directed by Wes Ball
- Thread starter ze_
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Looking at the press release I think Sony is still financing like 45% of this ... if Nintendo was in 60%+ or 70%+ why not just state that, 50%+ likely means like literally 55% or something. Enough so they have the lion share control but still enough left over so Sony can eat well from it and minimize some of Nintendo's risk.
Live action is a different ball park and the production and marketing budget requirements are generally higher, as such it's riskier.
There is probably a good chance this is the most expensive entertainment media Nintendo has ever made (more than any game or movie they have made before).
Also as an aside, can we get a freaking Netflix app on the Switch 2? Now that Nintendo is becoming a major movie studio (basically) and Sony has distribution deals through Netflix, it just doesn't make sense to not have a Netflix app. Call the people at Netflix and get it done, Nintendo.
Live action is a different ball park and the production and marketing budget requirements are generally higher, as such it's riskier.
There is probably a good chance this is the most expensive entertainment media Nintendo has ever made (more than any game or movie they have made before).
Also as an aside, can we get a freaking Netflix app on the Switch 2? Now that Nintendo is becoming a major movie studio (basically) and Sony has distribution deals through Netflix, it just doesn't make sense to not have a Netflix app. Call the people at Netflix and get it done, Nintendo.
Koren Lesthe
Turrican, Terranigma and ESO lover
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Yeah no. Sherlock sucks so badly.
Probably will "borrow" things from many Zelda games, there is definitely likely to be winks to the Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom since those are by a country mile the most popular Zelda games.
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nvm this will be peak
Champion Tunic at the start. At the beginning of Act 3 he will obtain his green tunic after a redemption montage of training/enlightenment.
OctoSplattack
Chain Chomp
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On the bright side, if nothing else, this will make people shut-up about a Nintendo Cinematic Universe.
Tentacle-tropes
Kremling
That’s still gonna happen regardless of this movie. Universal would have needed to land an exclusive license which I doubt Nintendo would have agreed to.
OP
OP
ze_
Moblin
You could argue it's because TotK is both the most recent game and a defining release for Nintendo this year, but every publication I see, from Variety and Hollywood Reporter to Complex and Consequence of Sound, is using TotK Link in their header images.
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RodneyPump
Rattata
Rebecca Ferguson could pull it off I bet
Ryuusagi no hoshi
Piranha Plant
Cool.
At worse this is just a mid movie that makes a lot of money.
At best this is a fun and kinda "good" movie that makes a lot of money like the Mario movie.
At worse this is just a mid movie that makes a lot of money.
At best this is a fun and kinda "good" movie that makes a lot of money like the Mario movie.
rêverie
Bob-omb
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it wasn't bad, but it most certainly wasn't good either.
with that being said, i'm... worried. wes ball seems alright, especially if they gave him the reigns on the next planet of the apes movie, which is a fairly acclaimed series. the writer from jurassic world on the other hand? YEESH...
also, all that aside, this was a SHOCK to log onto after the gym. omg!
JorgenRaft
Chain Chomp
Man so much of this news is a bummer, between the people behind it and it not being animated.
At least this means no Smash movie I suppose.
At least this means no Smash movie I suppose.
You'll get a Smash movie. Trust the process. And it will make a fortune.
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Suspect Aonuma will be involved on the Zelda front - writers are changeable, if he doesn’t work out (see Marvels’s attempts with Blade) and sony are also the studio that paid entire budgets for the James Bond films with basically full creative control for EON so… I think its too early to be worried just yet
Nintendo has 50%+ control, there's nothing going on screen that Miyamoto in particular won't be happy with. At the end of the day, really he is going to be the director in a lot of respects.
It's going to stick closely to the games just like Mario did and they will be enough with some sexy Ghibli meets LOTR jaw dropping landscape shots to have box office go through the roof. Oh and the music ... oh my, does that have great potential or what.
SpaceGodzilla
Did You Get that Thing I Sent You?
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everyone says this like Ghibli actully wants to make a Zelda movie and not think it's beneath them
carbvan
Chain Chomp
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Link is about to lose the fight against Ganondorf. He stumbles onto the ground hurt. Ganondorf raises his sword to land a killing blow on Link when a Light Arrow strikes Ganondorf in the chest, blasting him several feet back. Link looks up, Zelda appears with the Bow of Light. Link gets up, too injured to keep fighting, hands Zelda the Master Sword and says, "It was never my story, it was always The Legend of Zelda."
Rooster
Chain Chomp
Yeah in one scene. He'll be like "the hat really pulls the outfit together" and Zelda will be like "you look ridiculous" and he'll be like "haha yeah that's what I thought too" and quickly take it off.
And then you'll never see it again.
I think goofiness will come down mostly to the style than the color.
Like some of those bright ass superhero costumes would look goofy as hell translated faithfully on screen, but they pull it off just by making them look more realistic and practical. Often that involves subduing the colors, making them a bit darker. Dark green would probably look fine in that case, but either works.
Both. He'll have one for most of the movie and then acquire the other towards the end after [INSERT SETBACK] before preparing for [INSERT CLIMAX] and it will inspire him.
Rooster
Chain Chomp
Bruh they went to illumination for Mario they just want to make money and spread the brand
TLZ
Like Like
Samurai Goroh
Shriekbat
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One positive here is that the writer has already hit rock bottom with Jurassic World Dominion. So it's not like he can get any worse.
rêverie
Bob-omb
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you can be critically acclaimed while also being a massive pot of gold - LotR did it!
i realize you're not saying that but, it was my dream. a foolish one, obviously, but still, a dream.
Mekanos
300 Years Of Gyudon
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Biggest issue is gonna be making the hat look good.
Rooster
Chain Chomp
It's not that they're setting out to actively create a bad movie, it's that they're not prioritizing the elements that would most confer critical success. For one, the top filmmakers tend to demand a much higher degree of creative control.
I'm sure we all wanted Mario to be as good as possible. It would've been great to have someone like Pixar work on it. I would fucking love if Peter Jackson made this Zelda movie. I would be hyped as hell as opposed to... pretty apprehensive. Nintendo's agenda seems to be a little different. Unfortunately.
Yzz
Like Like
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It seems that some people in this thread live in this weird reality where Tarantino and Scorsese have waited their entire lives to make a Zelda film, and would cancel all of their current projects without hesitation if Nintendo granted them the privilege.
Like dude, the only acclaimed live-action filmmaker that might have a significant interest in The Legend of Zelda franchise is maybe Edgar Wright and that guy makes comedies.
Like dude, the only acclaimed live-action filmmaker that might have a significant interest in The Legend of Zelda franchise is maybe Edgar Wright and that guy makes comedies.
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SpaceGodzilla
Did You Get that Thing I Sent You?
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won't start filming for a few years since they only just started development
EnergyDrink
Shriekbat
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Link will definitely not wear the pointy hat.
rêverie
Bob-omb
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yes, it's very obvious that nintendo's point in creating these movies is purely to have a marketing vehicle for their brands to reach an even wider audience. makes sense for a massive corporation.
still, it would be nice if this turned out to be a marketing vehicle with great names attached to it - like greta gerwig and barbie. it's yet to be seen what wes ball will do and i don't want to completely count him out yet, but the other names attached don't exactly drum up a lotta confidence.
i think we're largely on the same page, though.
eye0h
"aggressively persue a multiplatform strategy"
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I kinda hope it isn't based on OoT. The whole kid becoming an adult doesn't work as well in Live-Action to me. If they ever did an animated OoT it would be amazing though. I think the only excitement I have for this is that we will probably see a big Zelda blowout around the time of the movie's release. Maybe that'll be when the next mainline is out.
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Why are you doing this to me? I need an unyeah button.
carbvan
Chain Chomp
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Sony doesn't have theme parks? I don't understand why making a live action movie with Sony prevents them from opening theme parks.
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I can't see it not being loosely based on Breath Of The Wild (probably in the time with the champions etc...)
Decoyman
Bob-omb
Avi Arad: whatever. His filmography is full of stinkers but he has at least a few hits to his name and the common trend among his productions is that the less creatively hands-on he is with something the better it is. If Nintendo is the primary financer and Miyamoto is a key producer, I'll be less worried about him being involved and assume he's just in there to get the machine spinning.
Wes Ball: could work. The Maze Runner films themselves are average at best but in terms of direction they're solid, his cancelled Mouse Guard adaptation looked good and I think he could deliver something visually interesting. If Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes winds up as good as it looks, then I think the director choice will end up sitting better with people.
Derek Connolly: I have nothing of note to extrapolate from his oeuvre because everything he's worked on except Safety Not Guaranteed (very good) and Monster Trucks (not very good) is a hodgepodge of writing credits where he may or may not even have been the main writer among three or even four different people. Because of the way the Hollywood movie machine works, it is very difficult to tell how much of the quality (or lack thereof) of a script is because of one individual, especially in productions that have a combined director/writer credit. Connolly is credited in TROS but nothing of his work is in the final product, and it's difficult to tell how much of the leaked Duel of the Fates script is his as well.
In summary, I don't know how to feel about any of this yet other than "it's surreal this is actually real", especially with Nintendo being such a hands-on factor in all this. It could be good, it might end up really badly. It'll be a new challenge for Nintendo either way now that we're entering the live action realm. My earnest hopes is just a film that's an enjoyable and presentationally engaging fantasy tale that can maintain Zelda's more subtextual themeings which made Ocarina of Time, Wind Waker, and the BOTW/TOTK duology so enduring. Best case scenario is a Link's Awakening type narrative. I like to think that with narrative being more emphasized in Zelda than it is with Mario, it'll be a bit more ambitious with its storytelling.
Wes Ball: could work. The Maze Runner films themselves are average at best but in terms of direction they're solid, his cancelled Mouse Guard adaptation looked good and I think he could deliver something visually interesting. If Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes winds up as good as it looks, then I think the director choice will end up sitting better with people.
Derek Connolly: I have nothing of note to extrapolate from his oeuvre because everything he's worked on except Safety Not Guaranteed (very good) and Monster Trucks (not very good) is a hodgepodge of writing credits where he may or may not even have been the main writer among three or even four different people. Because of the way the Hollywood movie machine works, it is very difficult to tell how much of the quality (or lack thereof) of a script is because of one individual, especially in productions that have a combined director/writer credit. Connolly is credited in TROS but nothing of his work is in the final product, and it's difficult to tell how much of the leaked Duel of the Fates script is his as well.
In summary, I don't know how to feel about any of this yet other than "it's surreal this is actually real", especially with Nintendo being such a hands-on factor in all this. It could be good, it might end up really badly. It'll be a new challenge for Nintendo either way now that we're entering the live action realm. My earnest hopes is just a film that's an enjoyable and presentationally engaging fantasy tale that can maintain Zelda's more subtextual themeings which made Ocarina of Time, Wind Waker, and the BOTW/TOTK duology so enduring. Best case scenario is a Link's Awakening type narrative. I like to think that with narrative being more emphasized in Zelda than it is with Mario, it'll be a bit more ambitious with its storytelling.
I think Sony has smaller scale theme parks and things like water parks, but that's probably not big enough for Nintendo, Nintendo is in the big time now.
Universal Studios has attractions from other movie studios like Transformers the ride (Paramount), Walking Dead (AMC), and of course the big one, Harry Potter (Warner Bros.). There was (is?) a Men In Black attraction at Universal, which is a Sony film property so there's that too, though in this case we have to remember on top of that, Nintendo Film Studios is the majority owner/investor in this film so really they can sell the theme park rights to whoever they choose.
