Gaming giant Nintendo is making a live-action movie based on its wildly popular video game series the Legend of Zelda.
The film will be produced by Zelda creator Shigeru Miyamoto and Avi Arad, a veteran of superhero cinema whose résumé includes the Oscar-winning “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.”
“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,” the Zelda creator wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Wednesday local time in Japan.
“It will take time until its completion, but I hope you look forward to seeing it,” he added.
Wes Ball, the director of the Maze Runner series and the upcoming “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” will direct the movie, Nintendo said in a news release.
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The Zelda film will be co-financed by Nintendo and Sony Pictures Entertainment.
The Zelda series has an illustrious reputation for innovation and is hugely popular with fans. The latest installment, “The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom,” was released in May and has sold nearly 20 million copies worldwide.
Major Hollywood films based on video games have often found it hard to win over audiences — although this year’s “Super Mario Bros. Movie,” based on another Miyamoto creation, raked in a high-scoring $1.36 billion worldwide. (An earlier “Super Mario Bros.” movie in 1993 was laughed out of the box office by most critics — The Washington Post being a notable exception.)
Part of the issue is that video games often don’t adapt well to linear storytelling formats. (Zelda is known for allowing players to create their own pathways through the games.)
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Nintendo said Wednesday that it will be “deeply involved in the movie production” as part of ongoing efforts to “produce unique entertainment and deliver it to as many people as possible.”
While speculation is swirling over who will play the lead role of Link, the jury was out among some Zelda fans when it came to the film itself. “I’ll believe it when I see it,” one user wrote on X.
Gene Park contributed to this report.
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