The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Universal's Illumination Entertainment is nearing a deal with Nintendo to return the Super Mario Bros. to the big screen.
Illumination Entertainment... is close to an agreement with Nintendo Co. to make an animated “Super Mario Bros.” movie based on the 32-year-old videogame series about a pair of sibling plumbers who fight evil turtles and mushrooms in a fantasy kingdom, said people with knowledge of the discussions.
Super Marios Bros. previously appeared in live-action form, in a 1993 film from The Walt Disney Company's old Hollywood Studios. That movie starred Bob Hoskins as Mario and John Leguizamo as Luigi, with Dennis Hopper as King Koopa and Samantha Mathis as Princess Daisy. Yeah, it was... interesting, with Hoskins calling it the worst thing he ever did.
Illumination lately has been hitting consistently for Universal, however, with its Despicable Me and Minion films as well as Secret Life of Pets and Sing — all of which have grossed at least half a billion dollars. Each. With Nintendo lands coming to Orlando and Hollywood (well, at some point), a Mario movie on Universal's release schedule would drive Comcast's corporate promotion machine into the stratosphere, orbit, the uncharted reaches of interstellar space.
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The Mario cut scenes in his latest game are highly cinematic and the potential for epic action is certainly there. Might just work.
Unless they reduce it all to fart jokes.
Find a strong story worth telling & they'll be set. They already have the characters & this expanded universe filled with whimsical worlds & creatures.....
No doubt they'll want to incorporate everything Mario related, but it would wise to not just toss in these aspects randomly (because you know there's going to be a Mario Kart sequence).
Serve the story, & this could easily get the commercial & critical acclaim that something like the Lego Movie had....
The expectations might be low, so they could surprise audiences by actually delivering something that they weren't expecting.
Regardless, The Mummy was Universal. The article CLEARLY says Illumination. Illumination did not make The Mummy.
I can only see 2 ways it would end: either a great film that doesn't need to be tied to Super Mario Brothers and they add zero to the plot. Alternatively you get a poorly made film propped up by the characters that is only being made for a cynical cash-in.
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