Sony Pictures hack reveals possible Super Mario Bros. movie in development

mario-saluteThe Sony Pictures hack, and all the subsequent information revealed to the public, is just ridiculous. There’s no other word for it. Emails badmouthing Angelina Jolie and the President of the United States. Passwords hidden in a file named “Passwords.” The social security numbers of thousands of Sony employees. The entire thing is just a mess. OK, I guess that’s two words you could use.

But we’ve also learned that Sony Pictures has begun negotiations with Nintendo to produce an animated film based on Super Mario Bros. According to a report on Buzzfeed, provided the deal goes through, the movie is set to be produced by Avi Arad:

“I am the proud father of mario the animated film [sic],” producer Avi Arad told Sony Studio Chief Amy Pascal in an email dated Oct. 23, 2014, with the subject line “Mario.” Arad then forwarded Pascal separate images of him with Mario Bros. creator Shigeru Miyamoto and Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata, the latter of which included the message, “Happy ceo, lets get together, it’s the mother load [sic].”

Pascal forwarded that email to Tom Rothman, who heads up Sony Pictures subsidiary TriStar Pictures. “Avi closed Mario brothers,” she said. “Animated.”

Arad is best known as the producer of Sony’s Spider-Man saga (both Sam Raimi’s trilogy and the new films starring Andrew Garfield), but he is also working with Konami and Hideo Kojima on the Metal Gear Solid film adaptation.

Obviously, it’s much too early to lose our heads over this news. But an animated Mario movie could be pretty great. Though it’s probably a good thing that Sony Pictures is considered wholly separate from Sony Computer Entertainment as that could get messy.

This entry was posted in Etcetera, News. Bookmark the permalink.
John Scalzo is Warp Zoned's Editor-In-Chief and resident retro gaming expert. You can email him at john AT warpzoned DOT com.