Japanese multinational video game company, Nintendo has announced the acquisition of CG production company Dynamo Pictures and will rebrand it to “Nintendo Pictures”.
Nintendo’s new subsidiary will “focus on the development of visual content utilizing Nintendo IP” and the “planning and production of visual content including CG animation.”
On the company’s IMDB page, it has listed credits on dozens of titles from Death Stranding, and Persona 5 as well as post-production work on Metroid: Other M.
Nintendo completed the acquisition at a period when it is gearing up for what could be the most significant cinematic release in years; an animated movie based on the Super Mario Bros franchise starring Guardians of the Galaxy star Chris Pratt.
The film is set to release sometime in spring 2023, nearly thirty years after the last major cinematic adaptation which was a 1993 live-action Super Mario Bros. starring Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo.
The animated movie has joined the line of the many upcoming transmedia properties where video games are adapted into movies and TV shows. Some of the ones we’ve seen included a second animated film based on the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise was released earlier this year, and a TV show based on Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us which recently finished filming and will release in early 2023.
Sony, which also recently put out a film based on its Uncharted games starring Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg, indicated that it wants to continue expanding its PlayStation IP outside of video games at a recent investor day with the likes of God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn and Ghost of Tsushima all coming to live-action.
Nintendo’s notice to shareholders says it’s acquiring 100 per cent of the outstanding shares of Dynamo Pictures, which will become a wholly owned subsidiary of the video game company. It expects the acquisition to close on October 3rd, 2022.
Isa Muhammad is a writer and video game journalist covering many aspects of entertainment media including the film industry. He's steadily writing his way to the sharp end of journalism and enjoys staying informed. If he's not reading, playing video games or catching up on his favourite TV series, then he's probably writing about them.
