Live-action Mario movie director: If Shigeru Miyamoto had participated in the production, the result might have been very different

The Super Mario Bros. animated film is now in theaters, but many people still remember that there was a live-action movie based on the classic game before that. Directors Annabel Jankel and Rocky Morton made the film in 1993, starring Bob Hoskins as Mario and John Leguizamo as Luigi. And the movie was... terrible, but it has a niche fan base because of it.

There's another major difference between the two movies: Nintendo is directly involved in the production of the new animated film, and Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto himself is an executive producer on the film.

In an interview with Variety, director Morton said that he had a "polite" meeting with Shigeru Miyamoto before the film began production, but the two never communicated again. Nintendo basically fully licensed the film to Hollywood at the time, and everyone knows the final result. Despite the cold reception of the film, Morton said that Shigeru Miyamoto actually liked it.

Morton said that if Shigeru Miyamoto had been more involved in the 1993 film, it might have been very different. "If I had a relationship with Miyamoto and had brought him on board, if he was a producer and understood what we were doing, he wouldn't have let certain things happen," he said. "If we had been a team, it would have been a different film."

The film was marred by a difficult production, including a last-minute script rewrite and two of the lead actors drinking on the set. Hoskins, who died in 2014, has repeatedly stated that Super Mario Bros. was the worst movie he had ever made, calling it a "fucking nightmare." Director Annabel Jankel also told Variety that she had "a lot of regrets" about the film.

Jankel said at the time that it was "a very painful experience." However, she also said in 2023 that the film was "a truly joyful experience that has gone down in history."