Nintendo Version of Lego Movie Is "Holy Grail" for Producer

Now that Nintendo has said it's open to bringing its characters to the big-screen, some have started to imagine the possibilities. One person in particular, The Lego Movie and The Departed producer Roy Lee, said today at the 2016 DICE Summit that his "holy grail" project would be a Lego Movie-style film that uses Nintendo characters.

"Zelda, Mario, the whole universe of characters, I feel like could be perfect for a Lego Movie-type movie," he said. "I don't have the rights to it, I would love to--that's my holy grail."

Again, Lee stressed that this project is not currently in the works. His comments came in response to a question about what franchise he would like to work on if he could choose anything.

2014's Lego Movie featured a number of characters from across numerous franchises, including Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, among others. It's exciting to think about the possibilities for a Nintendo version, considering Nintendo owns some of the most recognizable names in gaming, including Mario, Zelda, Link, Donkey Kong, and Star Fox, among loads of others.

The film business isn't entirely alien to Nintendo, as the company brought Mario to the big-screen in 1993 with the poorly received Super Mario Bros. live-action movie. Most recently, Nintendo's Donkey Kong appeared in last year's Adam Sandler movie, Pixels. Before that, leaked emails revealed that Sony Pictures was in deep negotiations with Nintendo to acquire the film rights to make an animated Mario movie.

In addition, there was a report of Nintendo producing a Legend of Zelda TV show for Netflix ("Game of Thrones for a family audience"), though Nintendo has since distanced itself from that speculation.

In August 2015, Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto explained that the company had fielded numerous offers for movies based on its franchises, but had turned them down. However, Nintendo now sees itself as more of an entertainment company and this includes not just games, but also movies.

"As we look more broadly at what is Nintendo's role as an entertainment company, we're starting to think more and more about how movies can fit in with that," Miyamoto said at the time. "And we'll potentially be looking at things like movies in the future."

Would you like to see a Lego Movie-style film with Nintendo characters? Let us know in the comments below!