According to Nintendo North America President Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo is in no hurry to let Hollywood turn it's products into movies. You may remember the movie "Super Mario Brothers" from the 1990s. The movie was not very successful and, in my opinion, degraded the entire Mario Brothers brand.
Nonetheless, movie makers are pursuing this video game giant for it's products. So, I pose a couple of questions:
1) Why would Nintendo be so unwilling to let some of it's products be portrayed on film?
2) Why are movie makers so persistent with Nintendo's products?
http://videogames.yahoo.com/events/playback/playback-108/1395094
3 comments:
I think that the movie makers want the rights to make the movies because there is already an established audience for it, or so they think. There are games on other platforms such as final fantasy, Doom, Silent Hill but to my knowledge these movies did not do very well either. I understand the possible reason the movie makers want to do it,howver i think they should take a look at past failures and just drop it. Perhaps nintendo is reluctant because it would turn away new gamers if the movie is a bomb. The established fans of the game are going to play regardless but people who are not familiar with the game may think that because the movie was awful the game will be too.
I don’t blame Nintendo for protecting their products from the big screen. You nailed it when you brought up the Super Mario Bros. movie…it was a disaster. Nintendo could be protective for a number of reasons, from it attempting to avoid another ill-received movie potentially hurting the franchise's reputation to the company realizing some forms of entertainment are not suited to cross outlets (i.e. video game platform to motion picture.)
In regards to why the movie makers are constantly pursuing Nintendo’s products can be reduced to this: Nintendo is a long-standing and successful brand with a massive following. In the present economic state, movie makers don’t have the freedom, or in some cases the financial ability to take chances on questionable or unorthodox movie plots. The result would be pursuing an unused resource that has a guaranteed audience at all costs. Again, while this may work for movie makers, it may not be the best portrayal for Nintendo’s franchises.
Candace - I think you hit the nail on the head. A movie bomb will hurt the reputation of their company. Final Fantasy has a cult following, so their movies do well. I think the same would be true for Zelda. Doom and Silent were bombs, although I really like both of them! However, everyone has their price and Nintendo may concede their pride if the number is right.
Will - Movie makers are getting less and less creative. Why make new ideas if you can steal old ones? Exactly right!
Post a Comment