Look, there was a time when I thought video game adaptations would only be good in the animated space, and even then, there were some bad products. But slowly, over the course of the last five years or so, live-action adaptations have proven you CAN make great video game series and films that are true to the source material and fans will enjoy. When The Legend of Zelda was announced to be getting a live-action film headed up by Wes Ball, who’s handling the upcoming Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes movie, I was certainly worried.
And while I can’t say that the film will be good given that only light preliminary work has been done on it so far, Ball clearly has the “right mindset” going into it. In a chat with Total Film, he explained how he’s going into the film mentally and the ideas and visions he has for it:
“I have this awesome idea. I’ve been thinking about it for a long freakin’ time, of how cool a Zelda movie would be… I want to fulfill people’s greatest desires. I know it’s important, this [Zelda] franchise, to people and I want it to be a serious movie. A real movie that can give people an escape. I want to live in that world. That’s the thing I want to try to create – it’s got to feel like something real. Something serious and cool, but fun and whimsical.”
I have to admit, it sounds like he understands what he wants from The Legend of Zelda movie, and I hope his idea of making a “live-action Miyazaki film” leads to another great adaptation. Only time will tell.
