Super Mario movie announced by Nintendo and Illumination

A Super Mario movie is going into production helmed by gaming giant Nintendo and Despicable Me producers Illumination Entertainment.

The Super Mario movie will be an animated venture this time around after a live action adaptation Super Mario Bros. – starring Bob Hoskins as Mario and John Leguizamo as Luigi – flopped at the box office in 1993.

The announcement was made by Nintendo President Tatsumi Kimishima and will see the Japanese gaming company partner with US production Illumination Entertainment.

Cast details or a release date are yet to be revealed but the movie will not likely hit screens before 2020.

Back in May, last year, Kimishima insisted that all Nintendo productions will be animated or anime and that the company were put off making live action films by Super Mario Bros. failure.

Illumination Entertainment are responsible for some major animated hits including the Despicable Me trilogy, Hop, Dr. Seuss' The Lorax, The Secret Life of Pets, Sing and Minions.

Minions is the second highest-grossing animated film of all time.

Nintendo's biggest film successes have been through the Pokémon movies, seeing the company produce 20 in total.

Their most popular narrative adaptation of Super Mario was The Super Mario Bros Super Show which ran from 1989 to 1991 for 52 episodes and mixed live action sketches with cartoons.

Gaming rivals Sega are also in production on a film for their company mascot Sonic the Hedgehog, in partnership with Paramount Pictures.

The Sonic movie – untitled thus far – is expected to be a CGI/live action hybrid, is Exec Producer by Deadpool director Tim Miller and is due for a 2019 release.