The Legend of Zelda Movie Director Aims for It to be a 'Live-Action Miyazaki' - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 06 December 2023 / 3,262 Views
Nintendo last month announced a live-action The Legend of Zelda movie was in development.
Director for the movie Wes Ball in an interview with Entertainment Weekly described his goal to make the movie like a "live-action Miyazaki."
"This awesome fantasy-adventure movie that isn’t like Lord of the Rings, it’s its own thing," said Ball. "I've always said, I would love to see a live-action Miyazaki. That wonder and whimsy that he brings to things, I would love to see something like that."
Ball added, "It’s going to be awesome. My whole life has led up to this moment. I grew up on Zelda and it is the most important property, I think, that’s untapped IP, if you will. So we very much are working hard to do something. We’re not just trying to do it because we can. We want to make something really special."
It was revealed the team is currently working on the script with the plan to take a bit of a break after the next Apes movie then jump into The Legend of Zelda movie.
"We’re working on the script, and whether it’s the next one or not, it’s hard to say exactly," he said. "But certainly the plan is, after Apes is done, to have a little bit of a rest for a moment, and then dive into [Zelda] and hopefully give fans what they’re hoping for, and also invite new people in. I think Nintendo's desire is to introduce people to this world that’s been around for 40 years now."
The movie will be produced by the Representative Director and Fellow of Nintendo Shigeru Miyamoto and the Chairman of Arad Productions Avi Arad. It will be co-financed by Nintendo and Sony Pictures Entertainment, with Nintendo financing over 50 percent of it. Sony Pictures Entertainment will distribute the movie worldwide.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
More Articles
Media formats aren't languages you can just translate between, if they wanted the vibe of a classic animation series they should have gone for classic animation (and that would have been the best fit for Zelda for sure). Why even get hollywood involved at all when they have great animation studios on their home turf?
Unfortunately, it's because it won't reach worldwide unless it's from Hollywood. No other place has that big of a distributor and marketing. Recently a Godzilla film from Japan was released, highly rated, but only airing in a couple of locations. Even in locations where it's airing, the amount of theatres are considerably low compared to other films from Hollywood. Thus, wouldn't do better than Godzilla from Hollywood. Same with Ghibli, the biggest film from them is Spirited Away ($350m+). However, majority of that is from the home country. The film industry is tough, you need those connections and ties.
They are using Sony for partnership and distribution, so certainly they could have the animation made locally and them distribute it worldwide. From what I know Demon Slayer, Dragon Ball and Slam Dunk animated movies have done fairly well.
Once again, only because those films did exceptionally well in the home country or region. However, I've always wondered that. Maybe it has something to do with budget. Hollywood films are significantly more expensive than others. Why don't more films outside of Hollywood distribute to more locations and advertise it. Maybe there's some restriction, maybe it's simply a budget thing, I'm not too sure. Majority of successful films outside of the US are due to it doing good domestically. Internationally, nobody does it better than Hollywood.
Hollywood films are the biggest of course but it's a bit of an overstatement to say it can't reach worldwide audiences otherwise, particularly today. Take a massive IP that has never been seen on the big screen before like Zelda and a big distributer like Sony and it's sure to reach most larger theaters around the world. The biggest market for Zelda is the US anyways and they certainly wouldn't miss out on it. How it would do after that depends on audiences
He never specifies which Miyazaki, so inb4 Link get called maidenless and gets one shot by Ganon fourty three times in a row.
what
Whenever we see a life action made by Miyazaki I may believe in it, but it being neither animated nor made by Miyazaki make it very hard to believe.
Put a chick in it and make it lame and gay.
*Moderated.
I hope Nintendo made a contract where they retain full creative control, so that this won't be woke. The Netflix adaptation of One Piece apparently came out ok, because they kept the IP on a tight leesh.
Reading about this guy's filmography and all he has in it are three maze runner movies and an upcoming planet of the apes sequel. I'm no Zelda fan but I'd be kinda worried if I were. I hope I'm wrong though.
Would you have imagined someone like Peter Jackson directing Lord of the Rings?
