Miyamoto admits Nintendo faces "an extremely high hurdle" with Zelda film
Been in discussions for 10 years.
The Legend of Zelda creator Shigeru Miyamoto has admitted Nintendo faces "an extremely high hurdle" not to disappoint fans across the world with the forthcoming film.
Following the company's latest earnings report, Miyamoto and CEO Shuntaro Furukawa were asked about the risks of expanding IPs beyond video games, to which Miyamoto responded directly on the Zelda live-action film that was announced during the report.
"Regarding the live-action film of The Legend of Zelda, I know we face an extremely high hurdle in producing a film that will not disappoint the global fan base," he said. "With this challenge in mind, I have been discussing this project with Avi Arad, Chairman of Arad Productions Inc., for about 10 years."
He continued: "Movies are just like games, in that you need to spend a lot of time working on them until you get to something you're satisfied with. Movies therefore need sponsors who can lend their full support until completion. For the production of our movies, Nintendo itself acts as a sponsor. To produce the movie, we were able to assemble a group of people who are willing to commit time to the production until we come up with something we feel confident about."
Miyamoto noted that for The Super Mario Bros. Movie, he and Chris Meledandri (founder and CEO of Illumination) had creative control over all aspects of production. For Zelda, he and Avi Arad are "taking plenty of time to prepare".
"We hope to release something good that will meet everyone's expectations, so please look forward to it," he concluded.
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. [1]
— 任天堂株式会社 (@Nintendo) November 7, 2023
The live-action The Legend of Zelda film will be produced by Miyamoto and Arad, with Nintendo and Sony Pictures Entertainment co-financing. Derek Connolly will pen the adaptation, whose screenplay work includes Jurassic World, Detective Pikachu, and Kong: Skull Island.
Reaction to the news has been mixed from fans. On our Eurogamer Newscast (above), we discussed the film's potential and possible casting choices. Could we get live-action Tingle?
Across social media, fans have been speculating on casting, with Hunter Schafer emerging as a favourite to play the titular princess. The Euphoria star told Variety she'd be up for it.
"That would be so cool," said Schafer. "I love the game, personally. I played it as a kid and I still play it now. Who knows! That would be pretty cool."