Sony making Super Mario Bros. movie, leak suggests
Warp pipe dream?
Sony Pictures is developing an animated Super Mario Bros. film, a string of leaked emails suggest.
The movie studio - which had its servers breached by hackers last week - apparently finished negotiations with Nintendo in late October.
"I am the proud father of Mario the animated film," producer Avi Arad told Sony studio chief Amy Pascal in an email dated 23rd October, titled with the subject line 'Mario' (thanks, Buzzfeed).
Images of Arad with Nintendo president Satoru Iwata and legendary designer Shigeru Miyamoto were also discovered, in a message that read "Happy CEO, lets get together, it's the mother load."
Emails from earlier this year reveal that Arad has been chasing the rights to Mario for some time.
Messages from February detail a visit to Japan so Arad could meet with "his Nintendo guy", and a trip to Tokyo in July seemingly to pitch for the franchise.
"I am heading to Tokyo... I am going to try and bring back a little plumber. I guess we can all use our pipes cleaned."
Arad has since spoken of the emails as referring to "just the beginning" of negotiations.
Sony Pictures' extensive security breach has exposed thousands of emails, as well as finished cuts of unreleased films, reams of celebrity contact information and work-in-progress scripts.
A group named Guardians of Peace has claimed responsibility for the attack, although its timing ahead of the launch of controversial North Korea flick The Interview has caused speculation that the secretive Asian state may itself be involved.
We've contacted both Nintendo and Sony for official comment.
