Nintendo has been understandably reluctant to the idea of lending any of its iconic properties to Hollywood ever since 1993's disastrous Super Mario Bros. Fair enough, to be honest. I mean, have you seen Super Mario Bros? It's essentially a 90-minute fever dream starring a bewildered-looking Bob Hoskins.
However, we know that Nintendo is currently working on a new, animated Mario movie with Illumination, the studio behind the Despicable Me franchise. There's hope, then, that we could see more Nintendo characters appear on the big screen in the future.
Video game movies are notoriously tricky to pull off, sure, but I believe there's potential when it comes to Nintendo. A Metroid sci-fi horror movie, for example, would be perfect. Or a Studio Ghibli-inspired Zelda movie, perhaps?
Or how about an animated Star Fox flick? Just imagine Fox McCloud, Falco, and that irritating af toad all tearing it up in a family friendly sci-fi adventure. That could work, and work well. Clearly this is an opinion shared by Gary Whitta, the screenwriter responsible for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
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Inspired by a fresh batch of incredible fan art from God of War art director Raf Grassetti, Whitta expressed his desire to adapt the Star Fox property in an animated big screen adventure.
I should point out that this is hardly confirmation that we'll be getting a Star Fox movie anytime soon. This is simply a case of one passionate fan retweeting the work of another passionate fan. Still, if anyone could make such a movie work, I'd argue that Whitta is perhaps best placed to do so.
Not only did he (collaboratively) pen arguably one of the best Star Wars movies (Rogue One is fantastic, deal with it), he also has experience writing for video games. Prey, Gears of War and Telltale's The Walking Dead are just a few of the properties he's lent his talents to in the past. Having written for games and film, surely he understands more than most that what works in one medium might not work in another.
This is something plenty of video game movies have struggled with in the past, with the likes of Assassin's Creed, House of the Dead, and of course, Super Mario Bros, losing what made the games great in translation to the big screen. Whitta, I reckon, could take what works about Star Fox (woodland creatures fighting in spaceships) and come up with a plot that actually works as a movie.
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Whether or not a Star Fox movie could work is obviously pure speculation on my part at this stage. There are plenty of Nintendo IPs that the company would adapt for cinema before they get to Fox and the gang. Still, I live in hope that one day Whitta and Grassetti will collaborate in an official capacity.
Featured Image Credit: Nintendo/Raf GrassettiTopics: Nintendo, God Of War
