New Super Mario Movie Confirmed At Minions Studio, Miyamoto Will Produce It

Nintendo has confirmed more details about its upcoming animated Super Mario movie. As suspected, Despicable Me and Minions studio Illumination will produce the film. This was confirmed during an earnings presentation today by Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima.

Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto and Despicable Me franchise producer Chris Meladandri are co-producing the untitled film.

Universal Pictures and Nintendo will finance the movie together, with Universal Pictures handling the worldwide distribution.

"With this project, Nintendo will pursue its goals of effectively leveraging its intellectual properties in mediums outside of video games, and of bringing smiles to people around the world," Nintendo said in a press release.

As previously reported, the plan is for the movie to be in theatres before the Tokyo Olympics in 2020; that's also when Nintendo hopes to have the Super Nintendo Land theme park open at Universal in Japan.

Miyamoto has previously experimented with film, even releasing a series of Pikmin shorts. Last year, Nintendo made it clear it was interested in expanding to films but that it would like to do "more than just license something."

1993's live-action Super Mario Bros. movie was a critical and commercial failure, with star Bob Hoskins--who played Mario--said it was the worst movie he's ever been a part of.

Over the years, Nintendo has been very hesitant to bring its franchises--which with Mario, Zelda, Donkey Kong, and others are among the biggest names in all of entertainment--to movies and TV. Given their prominence in the entertainment world, Hollywood has surely come knocking for adapatations, and now it appears Nintendo is finally moving ahead. Netflix was reportedly interested in making a Zelda TV show, though this never happened.

As for why Nintendo is looking at more licensing deals, Kimishima said in 2016 that fewer and fewer young people are finding out about Nintendo games through...games.Instead, they're discovering Nintendo and its characters through things like officially licensed Mario toothbrushes. So you can expect these kinds of licensing deals to continue and possibly increase, Kimishima said at the time.

For more on today's big Nintendo news, check out the stories linked below.

• New Mario Kart Game Announced For Mobile
• Nintendo Switch's Paid Online Service Launching In September
• Nintendo Plans To Release More DLC "To Promote Longer Gameplay"
• SNES Classic Sells 4 Million Units