Discover some of the problems that made the live-action ‘Super Mario Bros.’ be a failure at the box office and among the public
Did you know that there is a live-action Mario Bros. movie? With the release of the animation “Super Mario Bros. O Filme”, some people remembered the existence of an adaptation of the game with actors playing Nintendo characters.
The film titled “Super Mario Bros.”, was the first feature based on a game franchise and hit the big screen in 1993, 30 years ago. The production was directed by Rocky Morton It is Annabel Jankel and was starred by Bob Hoskinswho played Mario and John Leguizamo, who gave life to Luigi. Check out the trailer!
The story had many chances to succeed in theaters, but that’s not what happened! The feature was heavily criticized by experts and the audience and its box office failed to cover its own budget.
The production was criticized for not adapting the various Mario Bros. faithfully. Another factor that contributed to the long being a failure was its humor, which did not please the general public and neither did the critics. Finally, the few special effects, the cyberpunk aesthetic and the slow pace of the story, which did not match the universe of games, left viewers with a bad impression of the live-action.
Nintendo, the company that created the Mario Bros. did not participate in the production of the live-action, and Bob Hoskins, who played the protagonist, did not know the game before accepting the role. Recently, one of the film’s directors, Rocky Mortonadmitted to Variety the numerous flaws in the live-action and revealed that if the Japanese brand was involved in the project, the film could have been promising.
If I had a relationship with [Shigeru] Miyamoto and brought him on board, if he was a producer and understood what we were doing, he wouldn’t have let certain things happen. We would have had a very different crew and movie,” Morton said.
But one of the factors that most hindered the development of the project was the constant changes in the script. At first, the plot had a more serious tone, but as production progressed, those responsible thought it best to follow a children’s line. Because of this, many scenes were rewritten. However, the directors of the film did not help to make the changes, much less knew about their existence, which caused the film to start to go wrong.
And it wasn’t just in front of the cameras that the film wasn’t successful. There were several problems behind the scenes of production. The controversies behind the camera were revealed by the cast itself.
John LeguizamoLuigi’s interpreter, admitted in his autobiography that both he and Hoskins consumed a lot of alcohol before entering the set. The star even wrote that the pressure from the producers and the failure of the film were attributed to the protagonist duo, due to the amount of drinks they inserted during filming. He even revealed that he broke a finger on his hand during filming, and that this moment may have occurred in one of his drunken moments.
According to AV Club, before passing away in 2010, the actor Dennis Hopperwho played the villainous Bowser, revealed that shooting this film was a nightmare.
It was a husband and wife management team, both extremely controlling, unable to talk to each other before making decisions. I should have stayed there [filmando] for five weeks, and I stayed for 17. It went way beyond plan,” Hopper said.
Hoskins was not left out of the revelations of behind-the-scenes problems. The actor who passed away in 2014 described to The Guardian that the environment behind the camera was a terror.
The worst thing I’ve ever done? ‘Super Mario Bros’. It was a horrible nightmare. The whole experience was a nightmare. The directors’ arrogance was mistaken for talent. After so many weeks, their agent asked them to leave the set. Damn nightmare. Bloody idiots,” commented Hoskins
After this failure, Nintendo was afraid to make another adaptation, that of Mario Bros. or another game. So much so that only 25 years after the release of “Super Mario Bros” the Japanese company took the risk again. In 2019, the live-action “Pokémon: Detective Pikachu” was released, which was successful in theaters. Watch the trailer!
The animation “Super Mario Bros. O Filme”, which is the newest adaptation of the games, is already in cinemas. The film features the original voice acting of Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Day, Seth Rogen, Jack Black It is Keegan-Michael Key. Production is a partnership between Nintendo and Illumination. Check out the trailer!
Source: Recreio
