If you want a hint regarding the Legend Of Zelda film’s angle, think less Lord Of The Rings and more Spirited Away says director Wes Ball.
Ever since The Super Mario Bros Movie hit big earlier this year, it felt like a matter of time until Nintendo followed up with the announcement of a film version of what is probably its second-largest property: The Legend Of Zelda.
Rumours swirled, coy statements were made, but eventually, the inevitable happened and the project was announced.
However, what might have been surprising to some was the news that The Legend Of Zelda would be a live-action project, unlike the animated take on Mario and Luigi. Wes Ball, director of next year’s Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes, is attached to make the film, and has popped up to offer a brief take on the direction we can expect his Zelda film to aim for.
Speaking to Variety, Ball described it as “this awesome fantasy-adventure movie that isn’t like Lord Of The Rings, it’s its own thing.”
“I’ve always said, I would love to see a live-action Miyazaki,” he added. “That wonder and whimsy that he brings to things, I would love to see something like that.”
Considering that Tolkien’s Lord Of The Rings novels are generally considered to be the root DNA of much of the fantasy genre, we imagine that Ball means he wants to avoid boilerplate genre tropes and move into less charted territory, with his reference to legendary Ghibli animator Hayao Miyazaki further stoking that ambition.
Miyazaki has built his reputation on weirder storytelling, often jettisoning the conventional story-building process in favour of an approach that is both more visual and cerebral.
“It’s going to be awesome,” Ball adds. “My whole life has led up to this moment. I grew up on Zelda and it is the most important property, I think, that’s untapped IP, if you will. So we very much are working hard to do something. We’re not just trying to do it because we can. We want to make something really special.”
‘Untapped IP’ isn’t a great phrase really, but the rest of the sentiment is easy to get behind.
Ball concluded by offering a brief update on the current status of the project, stating “we’re working on the script, and whether it’s the next one or not, it’s hard to say exactly. But certainly the plan is, after Apes is done, to have a little bit of a rest for a moment, and then dive into [Zelda] and hopefully give fans what they’re hoping for, and also invite new people in. I think Nintendo’s desire is to introduce people to this world that’s been around for 40 years now.”
Nintendo is said to be putting up half of the financing for the Zelda project itself, along with Sony. That’s quite the power move for a company that is likely flush with cash given the success of the Mario Bros Movie. It’s going to be a good while before more solid news begins to trickle in, but if nothing else, the project’s ambitions are intriguing.
We’ll bring you more as we hear it.
