We all remember the disastrous Super Mario Bros. movie. It’s pretty much the entire reason that Nintendo generally doesn’t put its properties in other media. But, Eiji Aonuma—the guy in charge of all things Zelda—says that if there ever were a film based on the Hero of Hyrule, it couldn’t be just another passive, sit-down-and-watch-it movie. It would have to be something more. It’d have to be playable.


When I spoke to Aonuma this past week, he told me that that ideas for a Zelda film adaptation have been batted around. “This is something that me and Mr. Miyamoto talked about,” he began. “If we were to make a Zelda title, if we had interest in doing that, I think really what would be most important to us is to be able to play with the format of a movie, make it more interactive, like you’re able to take your 3DS into the theater and that leads you into participating in it somehow. We wouldn’t want to make it the same as any other movie. We want to somehow change what a movie is.”


Disney tried something similar recently and there’s no definitive verdict on how the House of Mouse’s attempts have gone. Still, you have to think that Nintendo—the company that’s helped birth and re-invent digital games as we know them—would come up with something pretty cool and intriguing. Remember, Hollywood, just let Mr. Miyamoto have final cut. It’ll be better that way.