Super Mario Bros. Animated Film In the Works from Sony Pictures

[Gryphon]

http://www.buzzfeed.com/adambvary/so...rio-bros-movie

Sony Pictures and Nintendo appear to have closed a deal for the animated feature film rights to the Super Mario Bros. video game franchise, according to a series of emails discovered in the massive trove of hacked Sony files recently leaked to the media.

“I am the proud father of mario the animated film [sic],” producer Avi Arad told Sony studio chief Amy Pascal in an email dated Oct. 23, 2014, with the subject line “Mario.” Arad then forwarded Pascal separate images of him with Mario Bros. creator Shigeru Miyamoto and Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata, the latter of which included the message, “Happy ceo, lets get together, it’s the mother load. [sic]”

Pascal forwarded that email to Tom Rothman, who heads up Sony Pictures subsidiary TriStar Pictures. “Avi closed Mario brothers,” she said. “Animated.”
The deal represents only the first step in a very long road to a greenlight for an actual feature film. Animated films especially go through a long and rigorous script development process before a movie starts production. The emails also did not indicate any filmmakers attached to the project, although Pascal does at one point suggest Genndy Tartakovsky, who directed the 2012 Sony Pictures Animation feature Hotel Transylvania and created the Cartoon Network series Dexter’s Laboratory, Samurai Jack, and Star Wars: Clone Wars. “[I]ts soooo perfect for him,” Pascal wrote. (A rep for Tartakovsky tells BuzzFeed News, however, that the filmmaker “is not involved.”)

On Oct. 24, Arad sent an email to Sony Pictures Animation president of production Michelle Raimo Kouyate thanking her for a congratulatory basket she sent him filled with Mario Bros. merchandise. “Thank you Avi!” Kouyate responded. “Let’s build a Mario empire!” Kouyate also sent a photo of the basket to Pascal, and said, “I can think of 3-4 movies right out of the gate on this. So huge!”
Curiously, BuzzFeed News could not find any emails in which anyone at Sony Pictures expressed concern about any conflicts with their video game corporate cousin Sony Computer Entertainment, which is a direct competitor with Nintendo. But Mario Bros. is a property that Arad apparently had been chasing for some time: In a Feb. 24 email, Kouyate indicated to Pascal that Arad was traveling to Japan in part “to meet with his Nintendo guy (who he has been courting for a couple years).” Then on July 14, Arad sent the following email to Pascal: “I am heading to Tokyo … I am going to try and bring back a little plumber. I guess we can all use our pipes cleaned.”

Nintendo has famously kept its video game properties away from movie adaptations after the disastrous 1993 live-action film Super Mario Bros. starring Bob Hoskins as Mario and John Leguizamo as his brother Luigi. In 2013, BuzzFeed News asked Mario Bros. creator Miyamoto if Nintendo had any interest in working with Hollywood again.

“There have been a lot of cases where we’ve been approached by different people with lots of different ideas,” he said. “And I don’t want to say that it’s impossible, [but] I don’t want you to get the impression that we are in the middle of making a movie or something. … But we always have to take into account the fact that game entertainment and movie entertainment is quite different — one being passive, and one being active. Those don’t always necessarily mix.”

Reps for Sony and Nintendo did not immediately respond to a request for comment

This is pretty big but not a done deal yet. Hopefully better than the last attempt, and if it succeeds, maybe we can get a Zelda or Metroid movie.

[jump]

Oooh, it's a shame animated movies take a years to make. I wonder what they will do with Mario's voice/dialogue, I can see a racist backlash from it.

[Kevinroc]

It's possible the leak may kill this project.

[MikeP]

Well, animation is definitely the right way to go. Still, I'll believe it when I see it.

[Abishai100]

It was the design, atmosphere, feel, and look of the Mario Brothers empire, with its color-coding lively offbeat heroes red Mario and green Luigi, that inspired modern-day dominions in Lego hero comics/movies, Marvel Super Hero Squad, and Batman: The Brave and the Bold.

All of these media celebrate the bubbly stencil or silhouette approach to color drawing animations characteristic of the modern age of claymation-derivative fantasy universes.

I like comparing Luigi from Mario Brothers to the Riddler from Lego Batman.

Mario Brothers related film projects should delight audiences interested in video games and/or animation accessibility.





Lego Batman



luigi2.jpg


riddler.jpg

[alex]

Nintendo has taken a much stronger hand in their licensing since i was a kid. Used to be just a few things that were off spec, now you can't go into a toy store without seeing 40 nintendo toys with nintendo approved looks.

[Nyssane]

It's pretty neat, I guess. I think Zelda would make for a more epic film (and this is coming from a HUGE Mario fan).

[damiendenio]

great news! I really would like to see them on screen. let`s see if they can bring the humour and real taste of the game onto the screen with this project..

[jump]

I'm surprised no ona has mentioned Avi Arad being the producer.

[Ghost]

Would be amazing if it looked anywhere near as beautiful as the Mario Galaxy games.

[JCAll]

I assume the plot is going to involve rescuing the princess, but I wonder if it's going to be an origin story.
I also wonder how much of the Mushroom Kingdom acid trip they'll actually be able to film.

[comicstalkcomics]

I imagine they saw that Lego Movie money and wanted to get into the mix ASAP. I predict a self-aware, funny project more akin to that movie; just put Smash Brothers together with that kind of idea and then you'll have "Step 3: Profit."