Zelda movie will be more like “a live-action Miyazaki” film than The Lord of the Rings

With the success of big-budget video game adaptations like HBO’s The Last of Us and Nintendo’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie, it’s no surprise that there are more video game shows and movies on the way. Recently, Nintendo and Sony announced that they are teaming up to make a movie out of The Legend of Zelda, one of the most famed video game series of them all. Maze Runner and Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes director Wes Ball is attached to helm the feature.

Ball recently spoke with Entertainment Weekly about his vision for The Legend of Zelda. The Zelda games are almost always about a young hero named Link who goes off to fight the forces of darkness and rescue the princess Zelda, who herself often wields immense magical powers as well. Despite these obvious fantasy trappings, Ball resisted comparing Zelda to the granddaddy of epic fantasy series, The Lord of the Rings. Ball wants his Zelda movie to be “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. That wonder and whimsy that he brings to things, I would love to see something like that.”

For my part, I think this is awesome. Hayao Miyazaki is the famed Japanese animator and storyteller behind such classics as Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, Ponyo, Howl’s Moving Castle, and Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. That’s the exact sort of tone and spirit I’d hope for in a Legend of Zelda movie, which similarly features a healthy dose of wonder, fun and mysticism alongside its more action-packed moments.

“It’s going to be awesome,” Ball said. “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.”

Wes Ball planning to work on Zelda after Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

Ball gave this interview with EW virtually from New Zealand, where he’s currently hard at work on the next Planet of the Apes movie, which is deep in post-production. As of right now, he’s hoping to get to work on Zelda once that film’s finished. “We’re working on the script, and whether it’s the next one or not, it’s hard to say exactly,” he said. “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.”

Dreaming about making a Zelda movie is nothing new for Ball. EW pointed out a very old tweet from all the way back in 2010 after Ball had just seen James Cameron’s Avatar and nerded out online about how Zelda should be the next movie to get that sort of digital tentpole treatment.

“You saw that tweet?” Ball asked when EW brought it up. “I had forgotten I’d even done it. Someone dug it up [after Ball was announced as the Zelda director] and they put it out there. I was like, oh yeah, cool, that makes sense. James Cameron’s one of the guys I look up to in terms of movies. He’s able to do big, giant spectacle, but he’s still able to ground his stories in a way that is very relatable to broad audiences. Avatar inspired me to ultimately make my little short ‘Ruin’ that got me on to the Fox people, and they gave me the Maze Runner movies. From there it went to Planet of the Apes and ultimately to Zelda.”

Ball is making all the right comparisons here, and it’s getting me excited to see what he does with The Legend of Zelda. We’ll get to see more of his work when Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes premieres on May 24, 2024.

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