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Nintendo and Sony team up for Legend of Zelda movie

By Blair Marnell November 7, 2023

After the Super Mario Bros. live-action film bombed in 1993, Nintendo kept its top video game franchises away from Hollywood for decades. But with the runaway success of the animated film The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Nintendo will unleash its other top title upon movie audiences. Via The Hollywood Reporter, Nintendo and Sony Pictures are planning a live-action adaptation of The Legend of Zelda.

While Sony and Nintendo are rivals when it comes to gaming consoles, the two companies have apparently been making plans for the Zelda film for a long time. As part of the announcement, Nintendo and Sony revealed that Wes Ball, the director of The Maze Runner trilogy, is attached to direct Zelda. Ball’s next movie, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, is slated to hit theaters on May 24, 2024.

Link in promo art for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. — Nintendo

The Legend of Zelda video game series was created by Shigeru Miyamoto in 1986, and the action role-playing game quickly became one of the company’s most popular titles. Several sequels have been produced over the subsequent decades, with the most recent game, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, arriving earlier this year.

Miyamoto will produce the film on behalf of Nintendo alongside Avi Arad and his company, Arad Productions. Sony and Nintendo will co-finance the movie as well. On the official Nintendo Twitter account, Miyamoto confirmed the news and said that he personally asked Arad to produce the film. Arad is the former co-owner of Marvel who produced or executive produced every Spider-Man movie to date.

I have asked Avi-san to produce this film with me, and we have now officially started the development of the film with Nintendo itself heavily involved in the production. It will take time until its completion, but I hope you look forward to seeing it. [2]https://t.co/2H9lzzS5Pv

— 任天堂株式会社 (@Nintendo) November 7, 2023

For now, there’s no time frame for when The Legend of Zelda will hit theaters. But if it’s finished before 2026, then it could be released just in time for the franchise’s 40th anniversary.

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Blair Marnell has been an entertainment journalist for over 15 years. His bylines have appeared in Wizard Magazine, Geek…

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A man plays The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom game.

It's not a revelation to claim that most modern advertising is pretty in-your-face and graceless. In a limited amount of time, companies are concerned with selling their product as quickly as possible, leaving no room for nuance or, dare I say it, poetry. Video game commercials are especially egregious; as any experienced gamer can tell you, those awful Sega ads from the '90s (this one is particularly terrible) still haunt many to this day.

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