In the most recent episode of the Video Game History Foundation’s podcast, VGHF founder Frank Cifaldi chatted with former Nintendo of America marketing lead Gail Tilden on a variety of topics relating to her time trying to localize different Nintendo products for the West. After discussing the history of Pokémon, the topic shifted to Nintendo’s expansion into transmedia for its franchises. In the ’90s, that was mostly relegated to TV shows and anime, but it seems that legendary creator Shigeru Miyamoto was the main obstacle preventing Zelda and Metroid movies from being developed.
As Tilden explained, “People were always calling about doing a movie. You can imagine that the most common question is, you know, We’re calling, we’d like to do a Zelda movie. So the answer was always no. And so, you know, even I personally said, Mr. Miyamoto, like, if Steven Spielberg himself wants to do a Zelda movie, what is the answer? He said, No. So that was it. The answer was always no.”
That apprehension likely came from the disastrous Super Mario Bros. film in 1993. Both a box office and critical failure, it’s been no secret that Nintendo shied away from filmic adaptations of its franchises for three decades because of the reception to that movie. While it’s unlikely that Spielberg would even want to adapt Zelda, Miyamoto was so scared of another commercial flop associated with Nintendo that he shut down every idea.
Surprisingly, though, a pitch for a Metroid movie was floated around a bit and may have even involved acclaimed Chinese director John Woo. As Tilden explains, “But the Metroid team, which is Mr. Sakamoto… he was open to pitches on Metroid. And his counterpart for Metroid Prime is Mr. Tanabe. So together, John Woo’s company, Chinese director, had wanted to pitch to do a Metroid movie, and we had several meetings.”
Charlize Theron was apparently in contention for the role of Samus, but neither party could come to an agreement. At the time, the only female-led action film was Catwoman starring Halle Berry, which was a tremendous disaster. Due to that, Nintendo decided against selling the rights as it likely assumed Metroid would be another critical and commercial flop. Can you imagine how amazing a John Woo Metroid film would have been though?
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Written by Peter Glagowski
Peter has been a freelance gaming and film critic for over seven years. His passion for Nintendo is only matched by the size of his collection.
