Sony CEO Drums Up Hype For Nintendo's Zelda Movie

Absoluty gagging for the near endless stream of articles before this film eventually comes out that serve to remind everyone that it's a live action movie. If only Fi could narrate each one...

But in case it's not clear, let it be known that I fully support this venture and every article that we get about it. Gun be a great ride.

I can't wait to sit through 2 hours of Link making random noises while staring blankly into the depths of your soul.

Hopefully this movie will be what kicks off giving Link voiced dialogue in future games.

Sony pictures? The one with the awful Spider-Man movies and spin-offs? The one that thought that Morbius was a good idea?

@Pat_trick gotta agree, their live action efforts are campy AF and bad news for any project. Their Spider-Man animation division on the other hand… wow… *chef’s kiss

@Yoshif3 True. I was so focused on the negative that I forgot the positive. Into the Spider-Verse was one of the most beautiful animations I've ever seen.

Can we have a Jim Henderson style take like Labyrinth or The Dark Chrystal please!

Watch them funk it up deliberately to try and put a dent into the IP. Lol

Don't think they would (deliberately) do so, but we'll see how it turns out regardless!

This comment changes EVERYTHING!
But for real, I'm willing to believe the reason Wes Ball is involved is because
A) He has a genuine passion for it.
B) He has a background and expertise in CGI work (check out some of his short films)
C) This is going to be live action in the way Avatar Way of Water is where there are sets and physical performances but the characters will be CG enhanced mocap performances and not live action in the way the LOTR or most fantasy films are.

I have no faith in the currently attached writer though.

@Yoshif3 The quality of those Spider-Man films (and the odd gem like The Mitchell’s VS The Machines) makes it even more annoying that they’ve gone live action for this

@AJWolfTill Well this film has more going against it seems:

~Wes Ball, the man behind 3 mediocre Maze Runner films.
~ A cgi budget that will be nowhere near the same level as Avatar.
~A writer who's track history hasn't risen above average.

But, I can see why the last was picked. Despite the terrible writing, Derek Connolly is behind some of the biggest billion dollar films. At the end of day quantity vs quality.

I have zero faith the Zelda film will be anymore than meh.

@larryisaman I suppose someone convinced Sony, Zelda has the potential to be the next Lord of the Rings. Too bad everyone they've selected for the project isn't the best in industry.

For those wondering when they will speak about the Legend of Zelda movie, the time stamp is at 15:50 - 16:20 so you don't have to waste time with all the other useless nonsense.

I didn’t read most of the article (yet) but I’m really confused as to why people are so shocked that Sony Pictures would work on a Nintendo project. It’s nowhere near the same thing as Microsoft putting a first-party game on a competitor console, it’s much more similar to how Apple, as an example, uses storage chips from Samsung Semiconductor.

Derek Connolly wrote Safety Not Guaranteed, which is quirky and worth checking out (I personally really enjoyed it at the time).

What he has shown, later, is how he can work within an existing franchise that has major control from people shepherding that franchise, like the first two Jurassic World movies.

He also wrote Kong: Skull Island which actually managed to work really well for what it was. (The movie has grown on me as an over the top b-movie with a budget).

He managed to write Pokémon: Detective Pikachu, which was a bit of miraculous movie that it could work at all, in my opinion. And, of course, this is probably the biggest reason he was chosen.

He can work within tight constraints and make something good, even if not great. That works for me, as a choice for writer. (He is also credited for "story" on some movies, which means he had much less control how they came out, so I don't hold that against him, too much).

I don't expect a LoZ movie to be super deep, but I really hope it can have characters I care about through an adventurous and triumphant story. I think there's a good chance he can deliver this.

That Apes movie that the director, Wes Ball, is working on will be a huge indicator. The first 3 movies were incredibly well directed and made, so if this 4th one "fits in" with those, he will have proven himself just fine to me.

As far as budget... I imagine it will be relatively large after the success of Mario. It's worth the risk for their second big movie, right?

@aaronsullivan I know im in the minority here, but just good enough is not a standard that I want to become the norm for videogame adaptions.

I'm personally not looking forward to the Zelda film, even more so after reading the films the writer is behind. If just barely passable is the standard, then videogames movies will have a very long way until they actually reach great.

Into the Spider-verse is great example, and that movie only made 385 million at the box office. While it couldn't compete box office wise with Pixar's Incredible's 2, it beat the film quality wise by setting a new standard for what animation can do. Every award it won, it deserved.

Inspiring such films are Puss in Boots, And Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

If comic book adaptions can achieve such feats, I see no reason why videogames movies can't do the same.

Hopefully its a serious movie and not a comedy action.

@Vivianeat It will unintentionally be a comedy for sure.

Ya I know

Maybe A24 or Ghibli will swoop in and save the day!

I wasn't sure what the timeframe would be but I'm assuming that really means it's progressing.

I just hope it's good. I think it has a chance. When we see it then we'll get a much better idea. Really hoping it'll be good.

@aaronsullivan " That Apes movie that the director, Wes Ball, is working on will be a huge indicator. The first 3 movies were incredibly well directed and made, so if this 4th one "fits in" with those "

I think you mean movies 2-4, w/ the 5th coming up, nobody liked the first movie w/ Marky Mark. No offense to Wahlberg, the first half of that movie was ok, but the 2nd half was utter trash. 2-4 were really good though, and that's coming from someone who has PoTA as they're favorite movie of all time.

" Derek Connolly wrote Safety Not Guaranteed "

Never heard of him or that movie but Kong: Skull Island was good and Detective Pikachu was so good I still don't understand how that happened. I even watched it twice to prove to myself it wasn't good - I'm not really a Pokemon fan - but it was just as good the 2nd time. Maybe he'll get Ryan Reynolds to play Beedle? 😂

I'm looking forward to it. Seems to be coming along better than the Uncharted movie which took like a decade but came out ok. I think anyone expecting Excalibur or LotR drama is going to be disappointed, I'm thinking more sword & sandals, I have very low standards. 😂

"As a reminder, The Legend of Zelda movie currently does not have a release date, though Miyamoto stated"

(note (for an editor/checker of this site): only "Miyamoto" mentioning in this article)

@Bratwurst35
To be clear I don't think this will exceed a 7/10, I'm just trying to draw attention to Wes' output beyond some apparently mediocre YA adaptations.
Hopefully we at least get a soundtrack as good as the Mario Movie's (without the dumb needle drops)

I wonder if the cast reveal for this will be as hilarious as it was for the Mario movie

Sony is the right choice for this movie. They have the knowledge, experience and previous form on the game-to-film front. Not sure why this comes as some big surprise or taboo?!

Besides... the Sony film teams are completely seperate to the game teams. Not that it even matters.

@rjejr ummm thats not how the Apes movies work.
The Tim Burton Apes is its own thing. It isn’t canon. It is a “standalone alternate timeline” as they call it. LMAO.

The new trilogy / reboot / set starts with Dawn and ends with War.
Kingdom is the 4th in that set of movies / timeline.

Hmmm sorry. Still distrustful.

@gcunit Master, I must inform you that this adventure movie, has an 80% chance of being an adventure movie.

@Bratwurst35 At this point, it's the most realistic we can hope for. :/

The problems with using Wes Ball and Derek Connolly's past work against them for why they aren't qualified for this is that one. In especially Wes Balls case they were the first movies he directed, directors make mistakes and can learn from them. Second, we can pick out bad movies these people have worked on but not about why these movies sucked. In Derek Connolly's case, he was part of a team in RoS. Detective Pikachu, and Jurassic World. Unless we have the storyboard and the scripts by each writer, we're just singling out. Lastly what these people have done doesn't mean the Zelda movie will feel like them in spirit, look at the Mario Movie having the Teen Titans go creators and the minion movie writers. Did the Mario Movie feel like them and if they did was it the same quality?

@GinMiguel I was with you until the last half there. Yes, Mario in spirit feels every bit like the past work of the team behind it. All style, and no substance to be found.

@rjejr Oh yeah, I didn't count the Tim Burton Mark Wahlberg 2001 movie. That one is a standalone and starts good, but just... ugh. (The apes and armor costuming was great, though).

Ryan Reynolds as Beedle is now something I want to see. Haha!

Really, you hit the nail on the head about Detective Pikachu. It was a good movie to fans and non-fans, which is exceptionally hard to pull off and also exactly what Nintendo will want with a Zelda movie.

Yes it's weird that Sony Pictures is producing it, but I don't care. At least it's finally getting made. And even if it falls flat and bombs, at least I can add "seeing Zelda in theaters" to my bucket list. I'm ready to be disappointed, but will be quite thankful if I'm not. I've waited for this ever since playing Zelda 2 on NES.

@Vivianeat Well EXCUUUUUUSE ME PRINCESS!

@rjejr Fantasy sword-and-sandal movies are not automatically bad, but I do hope they transcend that genre, a bit. (Lord of the Rings easily does, for me, except for those occasional montages of the orcs ransacking random villages, those are a bit too familiar lol)

I think in the first few seconds of the first teaser or images we see of the movie, it will be much easier to know what to expect.

@nocdaes Imagine if Sony announce the Zelda movie now and then Nintendo backstabbed them again and said we're not sure what Sony is talking about, it's really Netflix who we will work with to make the new Zelda movie. History will repeat again if that happens. Sony will then enter the movie streaming business to take on Nintendo and Netflix.

@Yoshif3 " starts with Dawn and ends with War.
Kingdom is the 4th in that set of movies "

So does it end w/ War or Kingdom? 😉

First I've heard of it being an "alternate timeline" but if we can treat Marky Mark's "Apes" like Matthew Broderick's "Godzilla" count me in. 😂

@aaronsullivan After my earlier reply to you my wife and I discussed the Zelda film, she's a big fantasy fan of books, movies, tv, games, and she thinks it can be dramatic like Wheel of Time but it needs some comedy like Dungeons & Dragons, can't take itself too seriously, w/ a wink and a nod to the audience.

Movies are subtle, sometimes it's hard to tell why they're good or bad. The Prince of Persia Sands of Time movie and the Assassins Creed movie are basically the same movie based on video games, only PoP was actually really good and AC was garbage. I can't tell you why, that's just how they were. 🤷‍♂️

Link needs to talk though, period, end of discussion.

@rjejr well what I mean is that dawn, rise and war are treated like one single story arc, a trilogy. The 4th is set hundreds of years later with totally different characters, it’s the second arc of the overall new story.

And yes, the Whalberg movie has never been considered part of the timeline, as it doesn’t make sense.
Behind the scenes, since it was critically panned and didn’t make sense of the overall story, the franchise was rebooted into the trilogy we now all know… and the Tim Burton movie relegated to a “different timeline” aka, not canon.
So it is not considered the 1st movie. Dawn is.

@rjejr AC is bad because the film focused too much on the wrong era. People who play AC games enjoy them for the ability to play in historical era's. That's where most of the enjoyment stems.

The modern aspect, just serves to help flesh out the backstory. It's the least interesting part of the games. The problem with the AC film is too much focus on the modern day world, which in turn made it boring to watch.

It's like the people behind the scenes didn't understand where the bulk of the enjoyment comes from and said "You know? Lets not focus on the idea of what's like to be an assassin with a hidden blade during historical events. Instead let's focus on making a modern day exposition dump film"

@GooseLoose1 The Mario movie had some substance. Its just not enough that it gets ignored altogether.

I don't need the hype. Just deliver the goods.

@Pat_trick the ones that actually created the MCU, Tobei Maguire spidermans and the spiderverse

@GooseLoose1 no substance but a lot big directors love it and has best animated movie nominations everywhere lol

@huupawel The ones that did that haven't worked with Sony for a long while unfortunately.

@Quiet2down I've only briefly touched the AC games so I'm only taking the movie as a stand alone movie but boring sounds about right from what I remember, which is very little actually, just that it was trash. To be fair I can't recall much of the PoP movie either other than I liked it, which gave me high hopes for AC, which didn't deliver. I watched the Monster Hunter movie recently and I can remember everything that was bad about that, Zelda better be better. Much much better than MH.

This is probably the most we’re going to be getting for a few years, this movie is certainly in early development.

Starring Jared Leto as Link and Tom Hardy as Ganondorf.

@Pat_trick they were working with Sony recently which is both good and bad

The director's name sounds dangerously close to Uwe Boll.

@calbeau
Isn't Jared Leto like 50 years old? Link should be about 17. Also, Tom Hardy is not big enough to be Ganondorf.

@Cia Courage is ageless and Power knows no height.

@rjejr Yeah, I agree with you and your wife on Zelda. Zelda has always been quirky and they need to find a way to make that work in the movie and be able to laugh along with it (not at it).

Incidentally, my family and I really enjoyed D&D Honor Among Thieves. I feel like that movie is an overlooked crowd pleaser. (Didn't help that Hasbro sank all the goodwill of D&D fans right before the movie released).

@aaronsullivan D&D was good. We just binge watched Wheel of Time season 2 this week and I thought that was really good after a weak YA (young adult) season 1. I'm actually even happy w/ the way it ended, I'm good if I never see the rest. I think it was better than House of the Dragon or Rings of Power. I know that may not be saying much but I thought those 2 were okish. If Zelda is nearly as good as season 2 of WoT I'll be a happy camper. Gonna keep my expectations in check though.

@rjejr For Zelda, I have trouble envisioning it as a movie. After all, most of the stories are mostly built on archetypes rather than interesting plots, the gameplay and what you choose to do being the focus.

Thing is, Mario had me thoroughly entertained. I underestimated how much fun it would be just to see how they pieced it all together into something that even worked. The plot was paper thin, the characters were just getting started, but I would get this satisfaction from all the little connecting of the dots that the games never did.

I have a feeling I'm predisposed to enjoying a Zelda movie. I'm sure they could find methods to push me away from it, but Zelda has bounced between many tones and quirks in its history of video games, so I think the movie can live in its own place and suit me just fine.

But, it does have to entertain.

For TV, I've missed all the strictly fantasy stuff, lately. For All Mankind has been the family favorite recently. (Silo, good. Severance, really good. Monarch Legacy of Monsters, good at times, keeping us connected to the Godzilla King Kong Monsterverse)

@aaronsullivan Everybody keeps telling us how good "For All Mankind" is. At some point I suppose we'll have to watch it. Monarch is next up, once my kid finishes Mario v Rabbids 2 dlc. Silo is on our list after we finish Lioness. I watched season 1 of Severance and liked it for awhile but then it got too weird. And of course it really felt like only half a season and I hate when tv shows do that, so I'll reassess my opinion after season 2.

So do you only watch Apple tv shows? We watch whatever I can get a free trial for. 😂

Zelda would work better as a TV show, there's a lot of lore there, but a movie can work. I hope. 🤞