Nintendo Turns Down Movie Requests All The Time

Tweet

Who doesn’t remember the cinematic masterpiece that was 1993′s Super Mario Bros film (heavy sarcasm intended)? Ever wonder why there hasn’t been a Metroid or Link film? Nintendo of America’s President, the iconic Reggie Fils-Aime says that they get producers asking to purchase film rights for movies “all the time”.

However, despite a lot of demand for movie rights to Nintendo’s franchises, Nintendo turns them down because they think of their characters as “our children”, Fils-Aime said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. Fils-Aime says that because of the high-regard that they hold their intellectual property in, they’re waiting for an offer of suitable quality.

Probably a good idea – considering the horrible Super Mario Bros movie was produced and distributed by some B-grade Hollywood companies. Fils-Aime says that Nintendo considers itself first and foremost a content company, and they feel that they’ve got to protect their content and franchises from horrible movies. It’s definitely a change in pace, especially when it seems like Microsoft hands out the movie rights to their games commonly (Halo, Gears of War), whereas we’ve learned that Nintendo is a bit more protective.

The LA Times interview was mostly about the Nintendo Wii and it’s recent Netflix functionality. Fils-Aime says that Nintendo is recognizing the modern consumer and developments in home internet bandwidth by bringing Netflix to the Wii, but he doesn’t see the Wii getting bogged down with a ton of apps like you’ll see a mobile phone (or computer). He says such things would just bog down the consumer.