John Woo’s Metroid Movie: The Untold Story Behind Its Failure

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For quite some time, Nintendo has been wary of Hollywood adaptations of its franchises, particularly due to the views of Mario and Zelda creator Shigeru Miyamoto. In a recent conversation with the Video Game History Foundation, ex-advertising manager at Nintendo of America Gail Tilden revealed that even if renowned director Stephen Spielberg expressed interest in a Zelda film, the answer would still be negative. However, there was one creative mind at Nintendo who was more amenable to the idea, and that was Metroid co-creator Yoshio Sakamoto. At one stage, a Metroid movie almost materialized under the direction of John Woo, with Sakomoto and producer Kensuke Tanabe taking part in preliminary talks.

In a previous conversation, Tilden mentioned that John Woo’s company had expressed interest in creating a Metroid film. There were numerous discussions about this project, which took quite some time. During these talks, potential actresses for the role of Samus were considered, including Charlize Theron, but she was ultimately deemed unsuitable. The conversations often revolved around who could portray Samus convincingly as an athlete rather than a traditional beauty. However, no definitive decision was made regarding the casting of this character.

During Woo and Nintendo’s negotiations, the Metroid Prime series on GameCube sparked renewed excitement for the franchise, which made the timing of their discussions quite strategic. It appeared that all necessary elements were coming together for a Metroid film to be launched, with everyone eager to bring it to life. However, there was a significant challenge looming: financing. As Tilden points out, at that time, there weren’t many action films featuring female leads, and the Catwoman movie starring Halle Berry had recently demonstrated being a high-profile flop, both critically and financially. In simpler terms, while everything else seemed to be falling into place for a Metroid movie, budget constraints and the lack of successful female-led action movies posed significant challenges.

Tilden explained that we proposed multiple ideas for our project, eventually selecting one and creating a pitch package to present. The budget required to produce the movie was substantial. At that point, the only successful female-led action film was Halle Berry’s Catwoman, which wasn’t successful. Despite this, John Woo’s company put forth a proposal for Metroid, but unfortunately, we didn’t make a deal.

Ever since Tilden joined Nintendo, there’s been a significant shift in their approach! Nowadays, Nintendo is more open to collaborating on films, which is evident in Shigeru Miyamoto’s role in the upcoming “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” and his current project with Sony on a live-action Zelda adaptation. However, there’s no update yet regarding any new developments for the Metroid series, as the John Woo pitch didn’t find a suitable buyer. It’s intriguing to imagine what could have happened, but here’s hoping that Samus Aran gets another shot at the big screen in the future.

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2025-03-06 19:43