Live-Action ‘Legend of Zelda’ Movie in Development

in Movie, Review

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‘The Legend of Zelda.’ Photo: Nintendo.

Preview:

Nintendo and Sony have a ‘Legend of Zelda’ movie in the works.
‘The Maze Runner’s Wes Ball will direct the movie.
The original game landed in 1986 and has become a big sensation.

With ‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’ proving to be a smash hit in theaters ($1.36 billion and counting), and ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s also successfully mining the video game genre, it was only a matter of time before other game characters made the leap to movie screens.

And with Nintendo’s massive catalogue of potential source materials, other studios are following in Universal’s footsteps hoping to strike it rich.

This time, it’s Sony forging a partnership with the game company, splitting financial input with the game giant for a ‘The Legend of Zelda’ movie, based on the successful series. And unlike ‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’, the ‘Zelda’ film will be live-action.

What’s the story of ‘The Legend of Zelda’?

‘The Legend of Zelda.’ Photo: Nintendo.

While Derek Connolly, who worked on the ‘Jurassic World’ movie trilogy, is aboard to write the script, there are no details about the storyline for the movie yet, or how it will draw from the games.

The game, created by Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka, and originally launched in 1986, follows the elf-like warrior Link, and magical Princess Zelda, as they fight to save the magical land of Hyrule from Ganon, an evil warlord turned demon king.

It has spawned multiple entries across different platforms and animated TV adaptations. With so much source material to draw upon, there’s big prospects for a sequel. But fans will have to wait and see which elements or storylines from the game will make it into a movie.

Who else is working on the movie adaptation?

20th Century Studios' 'Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes.'

Wes Ball, who directed the ‘Maze Runner’ movies and has other experience with existing material, as he’s the filmmaker behind the latest ‘Planet of the Apes’ film.

The film will be produced by Miyamoto, who these days is Representative Director and Fellow of Nintendo, and Avi Arad, Chairman of Arad Productions Inc, who has a number of big movies on his resume.

Here’s what Miyamoto posted to twitter about the movie:

“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. It will take time until its completion, but I hope you look forward to seeing it.”

This isn’t the first time someone has looked to adapt the ‘Zelda’ games. There was chatter that Nintendo would work on a series for Netflix, but that has so far not come to pass.

When will ‘The Legend of Zelda’ be in theaters?

As of now, the film doesn’t yet have a release date. Which is hardly surprising, since it doesn’t have a cast in place, or a single foot of film shot.