“Super Mario Bros.” and “movie” are two parts of a sentence most gamers never hope to hear unless it's in the sentence “The most horrible movie ever made was…” However, according to details revealed from Sony Pictures' studio hacking and as reported by Buzzfeed, Polygon, and Kotaku, Sony may have landed the rights to give it another go, as emails between producer Avi Arad, studio chief Amy Pascal, and head of TriStar Pictures Tom Rothman indicate.
According to the leaked emails, Arad sent an email to Pascal on October 23, 2014 with the subject line “Mario,” stating, “I am the proud father of mario the animated film [sic].” Pascal then forwarded the message to Rothman, adding “Avi closed Mario brothers, animated.” Though it's only the beginning in the movie making process, already Genndy Tartakovsky (Dexter's Laboratory, The Powerpuff Girls, Samurai Jack) has been suggested, with Pascal saying “it's soooo perfect for him.” (Tartakovsky, currently working on an animated adaptation of Popeye, claims that he has not been contacted about a Mario Bros. movie.)
Arad has been working on landing a vehicle for our favorite heroic plumbers, with emails between Arad, Pascal, and Sony Pictures Animation president Michelle Raimo Kouyate stating that Arad had a “Nintendo guy” he was meeting with in Tokyo. Arad even joked at one point in July, “I am heading to Tokyo … I am going to try and bring back a little plumber. I guess we can all use our pipes cleaned.”
Sony has not commented on the leaked email or a potential movie for Mario and Luigi, possibly due to the fact that a movie could be seen as a slap in the face to another branch of Sony, the little part of the family known as Sony Computer Entertainment, home of one of Nintendo's fiercest competitors, PlayStation. Nintendo has not commented either, but Shigeru Miyamoto has said in interviews that Nintendo is not entirely against their IP being used as source material for films.
Only one thing is known for sure: It's highly unlikely John Leguizamo will be called for a role.
