Once upon a time almost all movies based on video games were bad. There were a few decent video game adaptations, but none that were great. However, in recent years we have seen a few franchises adapted for the big and the small screen that have been met with critical praise, financial success, or some combination of both. One of the most successful has been the Sonic the Hedgehog movies, generally seen as some of the best video game movies to date. Now one of the writers has a dream movie he’d like to make from another popular video game franchise.
Josh Miller, who co-wrote the Sonic the Hedgehog movies, has one idea for a video game movie that he knows he’ll never get to do, because the project is already being worked on elsewhere. He tells IGN he’d love to do a Legend of Zelda movie. That’s not exactly a huge shock considering how popular the franchise is, and a Zelda movie is on the way, but he has a specific game in the series in mind which is a bit more of an unusual choice: The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. Miller said…
I think another easy one I think we can answer because the movie's already happening and we're already not doing it would be a Zelda. I remember always when we played Wind Waker, we were always like, man, I mean, it would probably be weird if they made a Zelda movie to start with Wind Waker versus the more classic Hyrule. But we both loved Wind Waker and it's so cinematic. Yeah. So after they make this Zelda movie, I guess we're putting it out there in the world, maybe we can do a Wind Waker spin-off.
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker is a unique game in the ongoing adventure series, as it used a cel-shaded animation style unlike anything else that had been done before or since. A teaser for a new Zelda game had been released years before which suggested a much more realistic Zelda game, and what fans got was the most cartoonish version of Link and Zelda to date.
Having said that, The Wind Waker is an incredibly fun game, with a massive open ocean that Link gets to sail on his adventure. It’s an incredibly fun game, and very much not the sort of movie fans would likely expect to come out of the Zelda franchise, but maybe that’s what would make it so interesting.
While there’s little we know about the planned The Legend of Zelda movie that is concrete, the possibility that it will take its inspiration from The Wind Waker seems remote at best. The movie, set to be directed by Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes Wes Ball, is set to be live-action, and a version of Wind Waker that was true to its source will almost certainly need to be an animated movie along the lines of the recent Super Mario Bros. film.
Hopefully the new Legend of Zelda movie will be great. Whatever games inspire it, there will be a lot of fans waiting for it.
