Chris Meledandri, the founder and CEO of Illumination, has denied a report last week that his company and Universal Pictures are jointly developing a “The Legend of Zelda” movie.
Universal and Illumination are fresh off the $1.3 billion box office hit “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” which became the highest-grossing movie of the year so far.
Jeff Sneider announced last week that the studios have struck a “big deal” with Nintendo to bring their most iconic non-Mario franchise – “Zelda” – to the big screen.
Appearing at the Annecy International Animation Festival this week, The Wrap spoke to Meledandri who was and asked Link to come to the big screen soon. He immediately shot down the report:
“I don’t know where it comes from. I mean I can understand how people would assume all kinds of things because obviously we had a great experience working together.
My relationship with Nintendo now includes being a member of their board, so I understand how people can assume these things. But in terms of details, it was just something I heard a lot of rumors about. That’s pretty much what will happen between Nintendo and Illumination.
Benjamin Renner, director of Illumination’s upcoming ‘Migration’, added, “I see a rumor every week and this week’s rumor is, apparently, ‘Zelda’.”
The game series follows Link, the brave sword-wielding hero of the kingdom of Hyrule, which also includes the wise Princess Zelda. During his adventures, Link runs into the dark lord Ganondorf who seeks the power of a sacred relic known as the Triforce.
The most recent game in the series, “The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom,” was released last month and has become Nintendo’s best-selling video game of all time, as well as being the most acclaimed game by critic of the year.