Nintendo is in talks with multiple movie production companies about releasing its globally recognized IP into the world of movies. Reports from Asashi Shimbun newspaper say Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima wishes to expand its reach into filmmaking, saying “We want to do as much as we can by ourselves.” Nintendo is aiming to make filmmaking a standalone business.

After 1993’s horrific release of the Super Mario Bros. film, Nintendo wants to keep as much control as possible on its franchise. Nintendo has not had much success allowing others to make movies based on their own IP. There’s already been a failed cartoon with Zelda and a failed cartoon with Mario. But with more creative control, who knows what can be produced?

With Nintendo’s large collection of iconic characters, a step into the movie world isn’t that farfetched. Much like Marvel is doing, having complete creative control can be the major difference between the subpar video game movies we’re used to seeing and the spectacular films Marvel Studios has been releasing. The only major downside I’ve seen is that Nintendo plans to release these movies in a 3D animated format, probably much like the Star Fox Zero released last month. This isn’t that big of a problem, however I can see a lot of people not wanting to watch the movie because the 3D format is more targeted towards kids. Many mature audiences wish to see only live action films, so this limitation will more than likely cause a drop in sales.

There were extensive rumors last year starting from the Wall Street Journal (which turned out to be false) that Netflix was in the works to produce a live action Legend of Zelda series. Even though the rumors weren’t true, does everybody remember the IGN April Fools’ Day prank eight years ago? I still get goosebumps watching that trailer; IGN did such an amazing job. Could you imagine a family-friendly live action Game of Thrones-like series with the Zelda IP? I feel that would be incredibly successful.

Well what about the successful Splatoon series inking up the big screen? Why not a 3D Pokémon movie with a brand new storyline? Metroid could easily be a film with its current story. Could you imagine an Avengers-style team-up with Super Smash Brothers? I’d love it, but we’ll need to see how everything goes before I get too excited.

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