Legend of Zelda Live-Action Film in Development From Nintendo and Maze Runner Dire

Hollywood, meet Hyrule.

Nintendo is developing a live-action film based on The Legend of Zelda, creator and game developer Shigeru Miyamoto announced.

The gaming legend took to Nintendo’s official X/Twitter account to write, “This is Miyamoto. I have been working on the live-action film of The Legend of Zelda for many years now with Avi Arad-san, who has produced many mega hit films.”

He continued, “I have asked Avi-san to produce this film with me, and we have now officially started the development of the film with Nintendo itself heavily involved in the production. It will take time until its completion, but I hope you look forward to seeing it.”

The movie will be directed by Wes Ball, who helmed the “Maze Runner” trilogy and the upcoming “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” written by “Jurassic World” screenwriter Derek Connolly and produced by Miyamoto, whose involvement in 2023’s “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” helped make it a groundbreaking box office success. Ball also produces with Joe Hartwick Jr. under their Oddball Entertainment banner.

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The “Zelda” movie is co-produced by Arad, whose credits include every live-action “Spider-Man” movie and the “Spider-Verse” animated films. The film will be co-financed by Nintendo and Sony Pictures Entertainment, with more than 50% financed by Nintendo. Sony will handle the theatrical distribution.

After decades of wariness when it came to adapting its video game franchises, partially stemming from the failure of 1993’s live-action “Super Mario Bros.,” Nintendo reached a box office high score with 2023’s animated “Mario,” starring Chris Pratt and produced with Chris Meledandri’s Illumination. The movie jumped to more than $1.36 billion worldwide at the box office.

“The reason we were so resistant and careful to adapt our games into movies is because in video games there is always a player, who overcomes challenges and fights their way through,” Miyamoto told Variety in an April cover story. “Their struggle — redoing the levels over and over — is all part of it.”

He continued, “Just following the plot points of the video games will never work as a movie. Without the involvement of the player, it won’t meet expectations.”

Plot and casting details are still under wraps, but the video game series follows the elf-like warrior Link, who sets out to defeat the evil Ganon and rescue Zelda, the princess of Hyrule. The latest installment in the Zelda game series is 2023’s Tears of the Kingdom, which sold more than 10 million copies in its first three days.

Ball is repped by WME.

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Larita Shotwell

Update: 2024-08-16

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