It was reported on Tuesday that Illumination Entertainment (subsidiary of Universal Studios) is now close to an agreement with game company giant Nintendo in a production of a Super Mario Bros. animated film. The talks have been going on for more than a year according to various news sources.
Only one film is currently being planned but the agreement opened up discussions of possible multiple animated films centered to the popular game franchise. One of the people present in these talks was Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo game producer and designer.
Back in May 2016, Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima said in an interview that the Japanese newspaper The Asahi Simbun that there were talks with top production companies for the creation of films based on their games. A report in Buzzfeed dated back 2014 revealed that Nintendo had talks with Sony Pictures for the film rights to Super Mario Bros.. Avi Arad, producer of the live-action Ghost in the Shell was involved in this production plan.
At present, both Universal Studios and Nintendo are already collaborating for the creation of Nintendo attractions for Universal Orlando Resort, Universal Studios Japan, as well as Universal Studios Hollywood theme parks. The construction of “Super Nintendo World” attractions have already began in Osaka’s Universal Studios Japan last June.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter and The Wall Street Journal