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Nintendo Shuts Down Fan-Made Zelda Movie
Andorin writes "An independently filmed adaptation of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, called The Hero Of Time, has been taken offline by Nintendo as of the end of December. The film's producers write: 'We came to an agreement with Nintendo earlier this month to stop distributing the film... We understand Nintendo's right to protect its characters and trademarks and understand how in order to keep their property unspoiled by fan's interpretation of the franchise, Nintendo needs to protect itself — even from fan-works with good intentions.' Filming for the feature-length, non-profit film began in August 2004 and the movie was completed in 2008. It premiered in various theaters worldwide, including in New York and Los Angeles, and then became available online in the middle of December, before it was targeted by Nintendo's legal team. As both an avid Zelda fan and an appreciator of independent works, I was extremely disappointed in Nintendo's strong-arming of a noncommercial adaptation to the Game of the Year for 1999."
It's bad enough Nintendo shut them down. Forcing them to put out a "mea culpa" statement like this (no doubt with hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars of lawsuits promised if they did not) is absolutely disgusting. Even if they did manage to put a little edge in it.
"...to keep their property unspoiled by fan's interpretation of the franchise..." Are they serious? Nintendo doesn't even have a consistent timeline for the Zelda games, plus they're currently running the franchise into the ground (Link as an engineer, anyone?). So what the hell are they complaining about? They should be thankful they still have such loyal fans willing to put so much effort into something out of love for the franchise, even though Nintendo has done almost everything to alienate both hardcore gamers in general and their fanbase alike. Nintendo, you used to be cool. Get your shit together.