In brief: Nintendo at long last has formally announced plans to develop a movie based on The Legend of Zelda. The live-action flick is being overseen by none other than Shigeru Miyamoto, the mastermind behind some of Nintendo's top franchises including Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda.

On X, Miyamoto said he has been working with Avi Arad of Arad Productions Inc. on the idea for many years.

The film will be jointly produced by Nintendo and Arad Productions, and will be directed by Wes Ball. Nintendo and Sony Pictures Entertainment will co-finance production, with the former footing the majority of the bill. Sony will handle theatrical distribution worldwide, we are told.

Miyamoto helped produce The Super Mario Bros. Movie, the blockbuster animated film that hit theaters back in April. That movie became the highest-grossing film based on a video game after just one week, and has grossed roughly $1.36 billion to date. It cost $100 million to make.

The Legend of Zelda dates back to the mid-80s and is among Nintendo's richest IPs. The original is often considered one of the greatest video games ever released and helped establish core elements that would become commonplace in action-adventure and role-playing titles. The latest game in the series, Tears of the Kingdom, launched on May 12 of this year and has already sold 19.5 million copies.

With nearly two dozen mainline games in the series, Nintendo will have no shortage of storylines to pull from. That said, we imagine they'll stick to the basics and tell the tale of Link having to rescue Princess Zelda from the evil Ganon.

Miyamoto said development of the Zelda movie is now under way, but plot and casting details are not yet known.

Live-action game-to-film adaptations can be tricky, but we've seen some impress examples as of late. The Sonic the Hedgehog movies both did well and the most recent, Five Nights at Freddy's, is off to a solid start after just a couple of weeks.