After decades of dominating the video-game world, Mario will be making the leap to the big-screen for the first time ever in an upcoming animated film from Illumination Entertainment founder Chris Meledandri. That's right, the first time ever. We're just going to forget about the live-action 1993 film starring Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo, but following in the footsteps of a much-despised film does have its advantages, as Meledandri told Variety that it's more exciting to have something to improve upon.
I like that this was not done well the first time. I think that’s more exciting or more worthy than simply making another version of a film that was done incredibly well to begin with.
In an effort to get SUPER MARIO BROS. right this time around, Chris Meledandri said that he's been working closely with Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto. "We are keeping him front and center in the creation of this film," said Meledandri. "I’ve rarely seen that happen with any adaptation where the original creative voice is being embraced like we’re embracing Miyamoto. There’s a history in Hollywood of people believing that they know better than the people responsible for a property. I’ve made that mistake before." We're still a ways off from the new SUPER MARIO BROS. film but it's said to be in "priority development" and could even be in theaters by 2022. "It’s an ambitious task," Meledandri added. "The challenge is taking things that are so thin in their original form and finding depth that doesn’t compromise what generations of fans love about Mario, but also feels organic to the iconography and can support a three-act structure." As we've seen before, great games rarely translate to great movies, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Mario's second attempt at big-screen fame will go better than the first.