Nintendo is in talks to bring Mario back to Hollywood, according to a report today by the Wall Street Journal.




The paper reports that Illumination Entertainment and Universal Pictures are close to reaching a deal with Nintendo for an animated Super Mario Bros. movie. Illumination is the company behind Despicable Me—which foisted Minions on the world—while Universal Pictures remains one of the largest film studios in the world.

The last and only feature-length movie to star Mario was the 1993 Super Mario Brothers starring Bob Hoskins. Last year, Nintendo CEO Tatsumi Kimishima reportedly told the Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun that the company was in talks with others to potentially create movies based on its characters.


It’s worth noting that The Wall Street Journal’s reports on Nintendo-based media have not always come to fruition. In February 2015, WSJ reporter Ben Fritz (who co-wrote today’s story) reported that Netflix was in early production on a series based on Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda. That series never happened.

When asked to comment, Nintendo of America told Kotaku, “We have nothing to announce on this topic.”