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Nintendo Eyeing the Big Screen
techstar25 writes "Coming soon reports that video game giant Nintendo is going to Hollywood by creating an in-house unit to develop animated features based on the numerous properties owned by the company. The plan calls for Nintendo to create a movie based on one of its own franchises for theatrical release in 2006. The original story is from Variety (reg. required)." It doesn't really say what properties to expect, but obviously it's Excite Bike.
Metroid would be pretty sweet, but it would probably require an R rating since it would be a horror movie.
Wasn't there a Super Mario Brothers movie already that did poorly?
Despite TRON holding a place in my heart- the movie was widely panned. However the video game raked in the quarters. (falshbacks to the beauty of the Discs of Tron environmental cabinet!)
Look at it this way: These movies are simply advertising vehicles for Nintendo's games. Good, bad, doesn't matter. Get the word out there and get the games bought. Thats the TRUE strategy.
In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
I'd watch a movie with the Prince in Prince of Persia. (The last one, not the ugly new one)
Video game companies have always wanted to be Hollywood. Unfortunately, they don't know how.
Hollywood has always wanted to be a video game. Unfortunately they don't know how.
One thing Hollywood does better than video game companies is arrange funding for new ideas. Despite their multi-billion dollar annual sales, no video game company spends any significant amount of time or money on research or development of truly new ideas, nor do they fund innovative new companies.
They simply market and re-market sequels and clones, sequels and clones. Oh, and they make people work 100 hour weeks until they are exhausted.
But Nintendo is the Apple of the video game industry, so they probably have a better product and better ideas.
Business isn't willing to pay for products, innovation and careers, so we get brands, mortgage commercials and layoffs.
Hey, The Wizard rocked! To all us Nintendo geeks, The Wizard is as classic as Breakfast Club. We all drooled at the opportunity to a) get a sneak preview of Mario 3 and b) dream of a reality where we could make money playing video games (those of us that were kids at the time, anyway).
Forget animated films.. who can forget the 90 minute Nintendo commercial, The Wizard starring Fred Savage?
It was a story created out of the classic song, Pinball Wizard, but with heavy Nintendo advertising.
It was the first time anyone saw the Power-glove in action and we were all so jealous. Unfortunatley for everyone who went out and purchased it, it didn't work quite as well as the 'movie' made it look.
It was also the worlds first glimpse at Super Mario Brothers 3!
I don't know if the movie caught flack from parents, but I remember quite enjoying it at the time as a kid.
I also remember a Mario Brothers Saturday morning show - and if memory serves correctly, it was also non-animated.
..mork
The kids started screaming about fifteen minutes in, and they left just after the guy's soul got ripped from his body.
You have two hands and one brain, so always code twice as much as you think!
The problem with the current brand of video game movies is that hollywood is trying to cater to everyone at the same time, because that's what will potentially make the big bucks (Look at pixar, they make movies that appeal to kids, teenagers, and adults, so they rake in tons of cash). The problem is that the video games that we love are tailored to appeal to the gamers of the world. Hollywood then gets their claws into it, and applies their own brand of bastardization to it, things like "all male characters must have a love interest", or "Colorful props and cheezy acting will sell a video game movie". Lets say they try to make a Legend of Zelda movie, the hollywood monkeys will probably say things like this.
Hollywood Monkey - "Instead of Link being a young man, let's make him a 40-something former hero who's called out of retirement because Zelda has been captured by Gannandorf again. Instead of a green tunic, lets make him wear white chain mail armor. Swords have been overdone, so lets make him weild the "master spear". Also, we'll write in a 20 minute love scene between him and Zelda."
Nintendo - "Ummm, I don't think that's so great. You're changing Link from the character we've created and made a dozen games from. While we hinted at a relationship between Link and Zelda, we never actually played it out."
Hollywood Monkey - "Great, people will be looking forward to their scene. Now, for actors. I see Steven Segal as Link, Tim Curry as Gannon, and (Insert supermodel flavor of the week) as Zelda."
Nintendo - "Ummm, I suppose, I guess. What about the Triforce. That's a big part of the Zelda series."
Hollywood Monkey - "Tri-what-now? It doesn't matter, it'll just get in the way."
And the meeting will only go downhill from there. Now, when this movie is released, the gamers out there will be like "WTF? This isn't the legend of Zelda that I love. What happened?" and the regular people will be like "Man, this movie sucks. It's based of a video game, so it obviously must suck to, and gamers who like that game must suck." and then the gamers are like "No, this isn't our game. We hate the movie too, but the game really is awesome." and Hollywood is like "Man, video games suck, you can't make a decent movie out of them." and so forth. There's also something to be said about the inherant problems of taking video games which are built around player interaction, and trying to make a movie out of them, which is meant to just be watched. The stories would have to be fundamentally different to make them work.
I have no idea where this writer wandered in from, or whatever happened to them afterwards, but it was this really awesome "what if" story where Mother Brain's goons finally manage to capture and slay Princess Whatshername, and Captain N goes insane, journeys to Mother Brain's world, kills her, and sets himself up as the new Dark Overlord. The universe goes to hell, Kid Icarus and Simon Belmont go into hiding as outlaws as he turns on his old friends, and I can't even remember what all else happens. Finally Samus Aran realizes that she always loved him, and tries to redeem him before it's too late...
The next month, it was back to Goofy Nintendo Game Theater. I still can't figure out the deal was. It was like stumbling upon an episode of the Smurfs where Vanity murders Papa and establishes a Stalinist dictatorship, until his own demons torment him with the dark mirror of the Smurf psyche. WTF?
All employees must wash hands before seeking equitable relief.
See, I liked the Final Fantasy games, and consequently hated the movie. I mean, seriously... if they had just played the typical battle-won music at some random point in the movie (even during the credits!) or something of that sort, it would have been worth it. As it was, it had almost nothing to do with Final Fantasy.
;) I hope I'm not let down again.
I am, of course, looking forward to Advent Children eagerly
The *special* hell.
More likely that Pixar will crush Disney. Picture-for-picture they are the most successful film studio in history and no one playing the game can touch them. Period.
The Farewell Tour II