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In terms of cinema, there's nothing more frustrating than jumping aboard a potential franchise, only to see studio heads pull the plug due to poor critical reception, underwhelming box office, or negative fan backlash. Surprisingly, this happens a lot, with an assortment of properties left dangling without a proper resolution to their storylines.

Typically, the fault lies with the producers, who too often put the cart before the horse and spend far too much time setting the stage for future sequels and spinoffs rather than focusing on laying a solid foundation for their property. And so, we're left with a bevy of incomplete films that vanish into the void -- often leaving a lot of unrealized potential on the table.

We've perused the cinematic landfill for examples of this unfortunate filmmaking staple and found 15 noteworthy cliffhangers that were never resolved. So grab some popcorn and take a look -- and don't worry,...

To say that adaptations of games into movies and TV shows is a mixed bag is a powerful understatement. Led by one of the least successful major films of all time from Annabel Jankel and Rocky Morton, many early efforts were low-quality, low-effort, and a betrayal of what made the games good. This is less often the case today, however, with many games seeing fantastic translations to the screen.

Everyone involved in “A Minecraft Movie” was hoping their adaptation of the beloved video game, which debuted in 2011 and still has more than 175 million monthly active users (as in right now), would be a success. But after over 10 years of development, a rotating creative team and a precarious theatrical landscape, no one anticipated Jared Hess’ movie would be quite as big as it is.

“I will say that myself, Legendary and the filmmakers behind ‘Minecraft’ believed in the potential for it,” Cate Adams, senior vice president of production at Warner Bros. Pictures, told TheWrap. “But did I expect people to be jumping on each other’s shoulders and screaming ‘Chicken jockey’ and filming it on Tiktok? No, I don’t think I expected that.”

As of Sunday, “A Minecraft Movie” has amassed a global total of $720.8 million, comprised of $344.6 million domestically and $376.2 million internationally, putting it on track to be...

In 1993, "Super Mario Bros." became the first live-action feature film to be based on a video game. It didn't go well. Budgeted at somewhere just south of $50 million, "Super Mario Bros." grossed a meager $20 million in the United States and performed poorly overseas. Its failure was essentially a fait accompli given the behind-the-scenes turmoil that found directors Annabel Jankel and Rocky Morton briefly getting locked out of the editing room, but the film itself was the kind of Hollywood debacle that was too weird to disregard. The production design was striking, the creature effects inventive, and the casting utterly bizarre. Bob Hoskins as Mario facing off against Dennis Hopper as King Koopa? This might not seem outré today, but at the time it was bizarre to see respected actors seemingly slumming in what many considered to be a glorified piece of advertising.

As a fervent gamer at the time, I found it odd.

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For those who've only known an existence with home gaming consoles, it might feel wild to realize that the video game movie genre is still quite young. The first movie to be based on a pre-existing video game was Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel's mangled-by-studio-interference adaptation of "Super Mario Bros.," a massive box office flop that caused studios to tap the brakes on future excursions in this newfangled genre. While 1995's sensibly budgeted "Mortal Kombat" turned a sizable profit for New Line, video game movies weren't viewed as potential blockbusters by the studios until "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider" grossed $275 million worldwide in 2001. The floodgates opened over the next decade, but the movies were, with very few exceptions (Paul W.S. Anderson's first "Resident Evil" and Christophe Gans' "Silent Hill"), about as bad as movies get.

The video game movie turns 32 this year,...

For many years, the high-water marks for movies based on video games were Paul W.S. Anderson's 1995 fight film "Mortal Kombat" and his 2002 zombie flick "Resident Evil." One can see what a sorry state we were in if those two mediocre films were the high-water marks of anything. Adapting video games to the big screen has long been tricky for Hollywood. These films are often lambasted as terrible and have typically bombed ("Kombat" and "Resident" notwithstanding). Alternatively, Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel's 1993 adaptation of "Super Mario Bros." is deeply beloved by a passionate cult of weirdos who love its zany ideas (a cult I belong to), but most folks didn't like how far the film strayed from Shigeru Miyamoto's Nintendo property.

There are many reasons why it's hard to adapt video games into good movies. For one, most video games are predicated on action and interactivity, while films...

Dig through cinema's litter box and all kinds of "gems" exist. Yeah, there are serious stinkers that require sage to cleanse rooms from their after-effects, but there are also diamonds in the rough -- the 'so-bad-it's-good' movies that keep audiences coming back over and over again. From a critical perspective, these productions are far from great in various criteria, but viewers don't care about such frivolous matters. The films hold a certain charm and captivating magic that money can't buy, possessing the ability to lift moods through the mere mention of their names.

Lest we forget, cinema proves to be a subjective experience. One person's Uwe Boll is another's Martin Scorsese. As long as everyone's enjoying themselves, let them. There's no need to be the gatekeeper of joy in life.

From slashers in space to snakes on a plane, let's fill up that watchlist for the next few weeks with the 15 best 'so-bad-it's-good' movies.

Moviegoers are truly living in the golden age of post-credit scenes. What was once considered something of a novelty has been rendered a necessity in an era when the Marvel Cinematic Universe and other film franchises are expanding faster than Dwayne Johnson’s biceps in a 5 a.m. weight session. However, the concept’s origins date back further than the dawn of the superhero movie era or anything equally fast and furious. Back in 1966, in fact, Dean Martin was proving to the world that not all heroes wear capes or drive ludicrously fast cars; some prefer a suave suit and a scotch. He may have been known as a crooner, but in the 1960s, Martin also played the part of Matt Helm, a U.S. government counter agent in a series of films based on books by author Guy Hamilton.

Essentially pitched as a more laid-back James Bond, Martin’s first outing as Helm,...

After stirring up headlines for criticizing the new film's cast, John Leguizamo addresses the idea of his return for a Super Mario Bros. Movie sequel. Leguizamo, who starred in the first adaptation of the Nintendo platformer video game as Luigi, recently took to sharing his frustrations with the cast of the animated Super Mario Bros. Movie, disappointed by the primarily white actors behind the characters after directors Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel championed for the Latin actor to play the Italian character.

While recently speaking with IndieWire, John Leguizamo was asked about his recent comments slamming the lack of diversity in The Super Mario Bros. Movie's cast. When further asked about whether he'd return to the franchise for a sequel to the animated film, the live-action movie's star acknowledged his interest, though had one caveat for doing so. See what Leguizamo said below:

If they start to do the...

“The Super Mario Bros. Movie” is heading toward $1 billion at the worldwide box office, which is a far cry from the disastrous fate that met the first attempt to bring the Nintendo video game franchise to life. The live-action “Super Mario Bros.” movie in 1993 crashed and burned at the box office, grossing less than $40 million worldwide. Many Mario fans found the film too dark and adult-oriented, but Luigi actor John Leguizamo recently told GQ magazine in a video interview that what they shot was far darker than what was released.

“[The directors] had this dark, dark vision that Disney was not okay with so there was all this butt-heading that was incredible,” Leguizamo said. “That party scene? Those were all strippers from North Carolina that they put on the set and they had them in the most revealing clothes and costumes.”

“Disney was not happy” Leguizamo added. “They had to cut a lot of it,...

There’s no shortage of new films hitting cinemas this weekend, but The Super Mario Bros. Movie is ready to butt-stomp the competition for another weekend of collecting gold coins at the box office. According to analysts, The Super Mario Bros. Movie is looking at $58M, with a nine-day $260M domestic total creeping toward $300M. Illumination‘s animated adventure in the Mushroom Kingdom grossed $9.4M on Thursday at 4,343 markets, -13% from Wednesday’s $10.7M. The Super Mario Bros. Movie recently crossed the $500M mark worldwide, becoming the biggest video game adaptation ever.

Renfield and The Pope’s Exorcist war for supernatural supremacy at the box office this weekend, though neither is conjuring dollars at cinemas as we’d assumed. Renfield sank its teeth into $900K in Thursday night previews, while The Pope’s Exorcist channeled $850K. The pair of genre films were projected to earn $8M-$10M. Renfield, starring Nicolas Cage as Dracula,...

While streamers typically get by on thrifty marketing budgets, pushing content largely on their menus, most motion picture studios, like Universal, still have all the superpowers in the world to blast a movie out of a canon.

But here’s something to keep in mind as we detail Universal’s promo playbook below in propelling Illumination/Nintendo’s Super Mario Bros Movie to several opening records.: IP and marketing machine alone don’t propel a movie to great box office heights.

‘The Super Mario Bros Movie’

The movie also needs to be great. As subjective and simple-minded as that sounds, when it comes to the feature take of the ever-popular video game Super Mario Bros, it meant staying faithful to the source material itself: The game. And that’s exactly what Illumination and filmmakers Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic did in this second big screen go-round of the Nintendo game.

(Welcome to Tales from the Box Office, our column that examines box office miracles, disasters, and everything in between, as well as what we can learn from them.)

It was true in the early '90s and it remains true now: Mario is the king of video games. To this day, there's arguably no mascot more recognizable for an industry worth billions and, by the end of the '80s, Hollywood was starting to realize this whole video game thing was here to stay. Naturally, that meant capitalizing on the popularity with a major motion picture. It also meant that Nintendo's "Super Mario Bros." was the white whale of IP that any studio could hope to get their hands on. In 1993, the result of producer Roland Joffe's unlikely bid to win those rights hit theaters and set the tone for video game movies for years to come --...

Luigi is the man. The green-capped, younger brother of Mario—as well as the one with the far more luxuriant mustache—jumps higher, runs faster, and looks plain cooler while doing it. This is a truth that’s universally acknowledged by gamers of a certain age. For if you were a younger sibling growing up sometime in the ‘90s or late ‘80s, you were always Player 2. You were always Luigi.

I was one such player, the kid brother of a sister who adored Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Bros. 3 on the Nes. There were thus many an afternoon spent waiting for my turn to play as the Italian plumber who’s dressed like it’s always St. Patrick’s Day. However, beginning with the Japanese version of Super Mario Bros. 2 in 1986, Luigi has low-key been designed as the better character with higher and further leaps, albeit less balance and traction in his landings.

Quentin Tarantino has long been a champion for underseen and undervalued films (just listen to his Video Archives podcast for weekly examples), but who knew he would be given credit for “vindicating” the 1993 Super Mario Bros. movie?

The 1993 Super Mario Bros. movie screened at Tarantino’s New Beverly Cinema last month, an event which proved far more popular than the directors expected. As recalled by Super Mario Bros. co-director Rocky Morton, “My thought was that there would be 10 or 20 people there…But it was jam-packed. There were people queueing up around the block for extra tickets.” He also noted that the crowd was “laughing and clapping at all the right places. They weren’t doing it ironically; it was genuine.” Morton–who, interestingly, shares a name with a Koopaling–also gave direct credit to Qt. “I think Quentin Tarantino understands where we’re coming from, creatively. It’s...

John Leguizamo will not be watching 'The Super Mario Bros. Movie'.The 62-year-old actor played Luigi in the panned 1993 live-action film 'Super Mario Bros.' and revealed that he has no plans to see the new animated flick due to a lack of "inclusion" in the casting.Chris Pratt and Charlie Day star as Mario and Luigi respectively but the decision not to put Latin actors in the roles has been criticised by Leguizamo.Asked if he plans to see the movie, the Colombian-born actor told TMZ: "Hell no! No I will not (be watching). They could've included a Latin character."Like I was groundbreaking and then they stopped the groundbreaking. They messed up the inclusion. They dis-included. Just cast some Latin folk! We're 20 per cent of the population. The largest people of colour group and we are underrepresented."It is not the first time that John has criticised...

John Leguizamo has bluntly explained why he will not be watching The Super Mario Bros Movie.

In November, the Latin actor criticised the casting of Chris Pratt and Charlie Day in the animated film, which is out on Friday (7 April).

Leguizamo, who played Luigi in a 1993 live-action film based on the video game, described the casting as “backwards”.

Now, he has said there is no way he’ll be watching the new version, stating “hell no” when asked.

“I will not [be watching],” he told TMZ, adding: “They could’ve included a Latin character.”

Leguizamo continued: “They stopped the ground-breaking. They messed up the inclusion; they dis-included. Just cast some Latin folk.

“We’re 20 per cent of the population. The largest people of colour group and we are underrepresented.”

Speaking about his former role in November, Leguizamo highlighted the lengths the 1993 film’s directors, Annabel Jankel and Rocky Morton, went to in...

Last month, Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel went to the theater to see “Super Mario Bros.,” a movie they directed 30 years ago — and haven’t watched since.

The live-action 1993 film, starring Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo as Mario and Luigi, bombed at the box office and landed on various “Worst Movies of All Time” lists, later developing a passionate cult following. In the directors’ own words, “Super Mario Bros.” was so “reviled” that it left a “black mark” on the married couple’s careers.

That is, until a midnight screening held at Quentin Tarantino’s New Beverly Cinema on March 11 “washed away the stain.”

“My thought was that there would be 10 or 20 people there,” Morton tells Variety. “But it was jam-packed. There were people queueing up around the block for extra tickets.” During the film, Morton says the audience was “laughing and clapping at all the right places. They weren...

John Leguizamo is doubling down on criticizing Universal and Illumination’s animated film “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” which casts Chris Pratt and Charlie Day in the leading voice roles of Mario and Luigi. Leguizamo brought Luigi to life in a live-action format opposite Bob Hoskins’ Mario in 1993’s “Super Mario Bros.” The actor told TMZ on the day “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” opened in theaters that he won’t be watching it due to the casting.

“No I will not [be watching]. They could’ve included a Latin character,” Leguizamo said. “Like I was groundbreaking and then they stopped the groundbreaking. They messed up the inclusion. They dis-included. Just cast some Latin folk! We’re 20% of the population. The largest people of color group and we are underrepresented.”

When asked again by TMZ if he would be watching the movie, Leguizamo answered: “Hell no!”

Leguizamo first spoke out against the...

On the eve of its 30th birthday, Super Mario Bros.––the 1993 film, not the groundbreaking video game––might be due for critical reappraisal. Dubbed “a complete waste of time and money” by Roger Ebert, rejected by Mario’s custodians at Nintendo, and described with utter contempt by its own stars, it has enjoyed three decades of cultural life as a punchline about the dismal standards of game-to-movie adaptations. Yet the tonally confused kids’ movie, viewed in retrospect of a fully Marvelized Hollywood, recalls a time when genuinely weird, mutant art could sometimes break out of the franchise-blockbuster laboratories. Directed by Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel, the spousal duo behind cult cyberpunk sensation Max Headroom, it liberally reimagines the vaguely defined Mario lore of plumbers, princesses, mushrooms, and dinosaurs into a gothic urban fever dream. Pursuing a kidnapped girl, the titular brothers––Bob Hoskins as Mario, adopting a wheezing, gesticulating meatball...

Seth Rogen is banana-slamming the 1993 live-action “Super Mario Bros.”

Rogen, who voices Donkey Kong in the new animated film “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” revealed his personal connection to the Nintendo franchise and how “disappointed” he was at the feature film starring Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo as Mario and Luigi.

“When I was 11, I saw the original ‘Mario Bros.’ movie and I was so excited. But it’s one of the worst films ever made,” Rogen told Variety. “I was so disappointed. I think it made me realize that movies, like, could be bad. That never occurred to me until that moment.”

Rogen added, “It really bummed me out. It’s nice to vindicate that moment. It’s nice to know that 11-year-olds out there … won’t be disappointed in the same way that I was.”

Rogen stars alongside Chris Pratt, Charlie Day, Jack Black, and Anya Taylor-Joy.

“It...

The directors of the 1993 Super Mario Bros. reflect on the movie’s original “childlike” script, and discuss trying to turn it into their Batman. With the animated The Super Mario Bros. Movie about to release, new attention is being focused on the 1993 live-action Super Mario adaptation, which starred Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo as a plunger-wielding Mario and Luigi. Notorious for flopping at the box office, Super Mario Bros. 1993 was lambasted by critics for failing to capture the spirit of the games, and for squandering interesting production design and effects on a badly-written story.

Called upon recently to provide their own reflections on the cinematic forerunner to this year's The Super Mario Bros. Movie, the 1993 film's directors Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel focused on an early draft of the script, and explained why they thought their own take on the story could be their Batman. Speaking to Total Film...

The Super Mario Bros. Movie star Seth Rogen opened up about his terrible first time watching the original Super Mario Bros. film in 1993. The live-action adaptation of the Mario franchise stars Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo as Mario and Luigi as they try to stop King Koopa from merging his dinosaur world with Earth. The film is a major departure from the video game series, with director Rocky Morton lamenting Nintendo's lack of involvement.

Speaking with Variety, Rogen revealed the disappointment he felt when watching 1993's Super Mario Bros. and his belief that The Super Mario Bros. Movie won't disappoint children. He recalled seeing Super Mario Bros. when he was a child himself, coming to realize that films could be bad products. Check out what Rogen had to say below:

"When I was 11, I saw the original ‘Mario Bros.’ movie and I was so excited. But it’s one...

Seth Rogen hopes Hollywood will redeem itself with Universal Pictures’ new animated “The Super Mario Bros. Movie.”

Rogen, who voices Donkey Kong in the adaptation of the popular video game series, tells Variety at the film’s premiere, “When I was 11, I saw the original ‘Mario Bros.’ movie and I was so excited. But it’s one of the worst films ever made. I was so disappointed. I think it made me realize that movies, like, could be bad. That never occurred to me until that moment.

“It really bummed me out,” he continues. “It’s nice to vindicate that moment. It’s nice to know that 11-year-olds out there that they won’t be disappointed in the same way that I was.”

The 1993 live-action feature, directed by Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel, starred Bob Hoskins as Mario and John Leguizamo as Luigi. Rounding out the cast were Samantha Mathis,...

When Rocky Morton's and Annabel Jankel's 1993 film "Super Mario Bros." first hit theaters in May of 1993, it was immediately greeted with skepticism by Nintendo fans. The live-action adventure took characters and some of the more notable iconography from Shigeru Miyamoto's popular video game series and repurposed them into a bizarre, dystopian tale about a parallel universe, the evolutionary fate of dinosaurs, and fascism. The whimsical, cartoonish fairy tale elements of the 1985 game were absent, replaced by something steely, dank, and coated in athlete's foot-style fungus. Fans were concerned that the movie wasn't a faithful adaptation of the game, and it was rejected on this basis for many, many years. 

Reviews weren't kind either. The film currently holds a mere 28% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Gene Siskel called it one of the worst movies of 1993. It didn't help that "Super Mario Bros." was also a notoriously troubled production...

Super Mario Bros. director Rocky Morton admits to the 1993 film's failings, indicating it would have done better if Nintendo had been pulled in for more involvement. The first attempt at an American movie adaptation of the Mario franchise, Super Mario Bros. sees Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo take on the roles of Mario and Luigi as they try to stop Dennis Hopper's King Koopa from merging Earth with a dinosaur-inhabited world. The film was panned by critics and gamers alike due to its unfaithful adaptation of the game series.

Speaking with Variety, Morton admits that Super Mario Bros. could have been a better film if there had been more involvement from Nintendo. In particular, he says Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto should have been more directly involved in the film's production. Check out what Morton had to say below:

If I’d have had a relationship with Miyamoto and brought him onboard,...

The most famous video game designer in the world is sitting meditatively in a drab studio in Burbank. The austerity of the room is in stark juxtaposition with all the colorful characters he’s dreamed up over a lifetime, from mushroom-gobbling plumbers to mystical warriors to barrel-hurling gorillas. He’s the brains behind two of the biggest video game franchises of all time: Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda. In fact, this visionary’s influence is so vast, he’s been compared to Walt Disney or Steve Jobs.

And as Shigeru Miyamoto picks disinterestedly at a breakfast burrito, he’s an island of calm in a swirl of chaos. His team of handlers — Nintendo executives from Japan and America — is frantically hovering around him like a protective ring of Koopa shells. Miyamoto, who has granted only a handful of major interviews, is here to discuss “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” with Chris Meledandri,...

Chris Pratt’s voice role as Mario in “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” has been a point of debate ever since he was cast. Pratt is not Italian, after all, and many fans were left baffled when the movie’s first trailer dropped last October and revealed Pratt’s Brooklyn-heavy Mario voice. It’s not a concern for the film’s directors, Michael Jelenic and Aaron Horvath. The filmmakers told Total Film magazine that casting Pratt made sense given the Mario at the center of their story.

“It’s a bit of an origin tale. It’s the story of Mario becoming Super Mario,” Horvath said about the film, adding that finding the perfect Mario voice meant finding an actor who could believably portray a plumber from Brooklyn who is “a blue-collar guy from a family of Italian immigrants.”

“For us, it made total sense,” the director stressed about casting Pratt.

Nintendo and Illumination Entertainment have released a new poster for the upcoming Super Mario Bros Movie, which finds Bowser looming over the Mushroom Kingdom. Check it out below!

The Super Mario Bros Movie features the voices of Chris Pratt as Mario, Charlie Day as Luigi, Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach, Jack Black as Bowser, Keegan-Michael Key as Toad, Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong, Fred Armisen as Cranky Kong, Kevin Michael Richardson as Kamek, and Sebastian Maniscalco as Spike. Aaron Horvath and Micahel Jelenic directed the movie from a script by Matthew Fogel.

I can’t say I was exactly looking forward to the Super Mario Bros Movie, but I’ll admit that the trailers have won me over. It actually looks like quite a lot of fun. If the film is successful, it could lead to sequels, spinoffs, and adaptations of other Nintendo properties. Charlie Day has expressed an interest...

John Leguizamo, star of 1993's Super Mario Bros., discusses how his feelings about the film have changed thanks to fans. Super Mario Bros. was adapted from Nintendo's hit video game franchise, becoming the first film based on a game. Leguizamo starred as Luigi alongside Bob Hoskins as Mario, Samantha Mathis as Princess Daisy, and Dennis Hopper as King Koopa. Unfortunately, Super Mario Bros. was poorly received by critics and audiences, leading to a substantial loss by taking in 20 million on a reported budget of 48 million.

As reported by /Film, Leguizamo's low opinion of Super Mario Bros. has shifted over the years with the help of loyal fans. Years of attending comic cons have allowed the actor to see a dedicated fanbase who grew up loving the movie despite the negativity it received upon release. Leguizamo says thanks to these passionate fans, "it softened my heart." Check out Leguizamo's comments...

In 1993, Rocky Morton's and Annabel Jankel's "Super Mario Bros." was released in theaters to terrible reviews and widespread derision. Many audiences at the time could be heard rejecting the film out of hand, as it invented its own, bizarre premise wholly separate from the games on which it was based. The games dealt hallucinatory adventure/fantasy scenarios about plumbers trekking across a land lousy with hammer-throwing turtles and power-granting mushrooms to rescue a princess that had been kidnapped by a fire-breathing dragon. 

The film, in contrast, posited that when Earth was struck by the meteor that killed the dinosaurs, it created two parallel Earths. One Earth was the familiar realm where humans evolved from apes. The other was a world where dinosaurs survived and continued to evolve into human-looking creatures. The dinosaur dimension, however, was facing ruin at the hands of its tyrannical leader King Koopa (Dennis Hopper...

Not everything is just peachy in the world of “Super Mario Bros.”

The Nintendo movie adaptation, from Universal and Illumination, stars Chris Pratt and Charlie Day as plumber brothers Mario and Luigi. The duo set out to save Princess Peach, played by Anya Taylor-Joy, as Bowser (Jack Black) and Donkey Kong (Seth Rogen) stand in their way. Keegan-Michael Key voices Toad.

“Super Mario Bros.” is directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic, both “Teen Titans Go!” alums. The screenplay is written by Matthew Fogel, who penned “The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part” and “Minions: The Rise of Gru.”

The film first garnered controversy over the lack of Italian voice acting casting, namely with Pratt as Mario. Producer and Illumination Studios founder and CEO Chris Meledandri curbed any casting doubts over the lead star.

“We are collaborating with Chris and his experienced team to not just create a character-licensed film,...

Lets-a-go! Nintendo has released a new trailer for The Super Mario Bros Movie which offers us much more of Chris Pratt’s Mario than the first one. The new trailer also introduces us to Princess Peach, Donkey Kong, and more, and there are also plenty of references to many of the Super Mario video-games, including Mario Kart. All in all, it looks like a lot of fun.

The Super Mario Bros Movie features the voices of Chris Pratt as Mario, Charlie Day as Luigi, Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach, Jack Black as Bowser, Keegan-Micahel Key as Toad, Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong, Fred Armisen as Cranky Kong, Kevin Michael Richardson as Kamek, and Sebastian Maniscalco as Spike. Aaron Horvath and Micahel Jelenic directed the movie from a script by Matthew Fogel.

Related John Leguizamo based his The Menu character on Steven Seagal

The project hasn’t exactly been free of controversy.

John Leguizamo is outspoken when it comes to representation in Hollywood. When news broke that actor James Franco was cast as Fidel Castro in an upcoming film, Alina of Cuba, Leguizamo voiced his displeasure with a non-Latin person being put in the role. When it was announced that Guardians of the Galaxy‘s Chris Pratt was cast as Mario, people on Twitter started to post their concerns about it, and Leguizamo joined the legion of critics.

Variety reports on his disappointment with not only Pratt but also Charlie Day portraying Luigi. When Leguizamo was cast as Luigi in 1993’s Super Mario Bros, he felt he at least represented the person-of-color heritage that characterized the Italian plumbers, despite being of Latin descent and his co-star was Bob Hoskins, an Englishman.

Leguizamo explained,

“I’m O.G. A lot of people love the original. I did Comic-Con in New York and in Baltimore,...

John Leguizamo has criticised Chris Pratt and Charlie Day’s casting in the new Super Mario Bros film.

The Latin actor, who plated Luigi in a 1993 live-action film based on the video game, described the move as “backwards”.

Speaking about his former role, Leguizamo said: “A lot of people love the original. I did Comic-Con in New York and in Baltimore, and everyone’s like, ‘No, no, we love the old one, the original.’ They’re not feeling the new one.’ I’m not bitter. It’s unfortunate.”

Addressing American actors Pratt and Day’s casting as the characters, Leguizamo highlighted the lengths the 1993 film’s directors, Annabel Jankel and Rocky Morton, went to in order to get him cast in the role.

“They fought really hard for me to be the lead because I was a Latin man, and they [the studio] didn’t want me to be the lead. They fought really hard,...

John Leguizamo played Luigi opposite the late Bob Hoskins’ Mario in the 1993 live-action comedy “Super Mario Bros. Movie” and he’s sharing his thoughts about the casting for the upcoming animated “The Super Mario Bros. Movie”.

In the new film, Chris Pratt voices Mario while “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” star Charlie Day voices Luigi, casting choices that Leguizamo sees as “going backwards.”

“I’m O.G. A lot of people love the original,” Leguizamo said in a recent interview with IndieWire.

Read More: John Leguizamo Says ‘Too Bad They Went All White’ With ‘Super Mario Bros.’ Movie Casting

“I did Comic-Con in New York and in Baltimore, and everyone’s like, ‘No, no, we love the old one, the original.’ They’re not feeling the new one,” Leguizamo added. “I’m not bitter. It’s unfortunate.”

Photo by Moviestore/Shutterstock

As Leguizamo recalled, directors Annabel Jankel and Rocky Morton...

John Leguizamo is a bit critical of Universal and Illumination’s upcoming animated film “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” which stars Chris Pratt and Charlie Day as Mario and Luigi, respectively. Leguizamo, who brought Luigi to life opposite Bob Hoskins’ Mario in 1993’s live-action “Super Mario Bros.,” told IndieWire the new film went “backwards” by having two white actors voice Mario and Luigi.

“I’m O.G. A lot of people love the original,” Leguizamo said when asked for his thoughts on the Chris Pratt-starring new Mario movie. “I did Comic-Con in New York and in Baltimore, and everyone’s like, ‘No, no, we love the old one, the original.’ They’re not feeling the new one.’ I’m not bitter. It’s unfortunate.”

“The directors Annabel Jankel and Rocky Morton fought really hard for me to be the lead because I was a Latin man, and they [the studio] didn’t...

The group of those speaking out against the upcoming reboot is growing as original Super Mario Bros. movie star John Leguizamo is slamming the animated film's non-inclusive cast. Leguizamo starred in the 1993 adaptation of Nintendo's game franchise as Luigi Mario, an Italian-American plumber and brother to the titular character who find themselves transported to the bizarre alternate dimension of Dinohattan, led by Dennis Hopper's King Koopa. The Super Mario Bros. Movie will act as a launching point for an interconnected cinematic universe of Nintendo characters, with Chris Pratt leading the ensemble cast of Mario, though not all are on board for the casting.

In a recent interview with IndieWire, Leguizamo reflected on his time making the original Super Mario Bros. movie adaptation. While looking towards the upcoming animated film, the former Luigi actor slammed the decision to go for a white actor in the titular role, feeling it...

John Leguizamo is saying mamma mia to the new “Super Mario Bros.” casting.

Leguizamo, who played Luigi in the 1993 live-action film opposite Bob Hoskins’ Mario, exclusively told IndieWire at “The Menu” premiere in New York that casting is “going backwards” with the upcoming animated feature film “Super Mario Bros.” The movie made waves after it was revealed that Chris Pratt would be playing Mario opposite Charlie Day’s Luigi. Neither actor is of Italian descent.

“I’m O.G. A lot of people love the original. I did Comic-Con in New York and in Baltimore, and everyone’s like, ‘No, no, we love the old one, the original.’ They’re not feeling the new one,” Leguizamo told IndieWire. “I’m not bitter. It’s unfortunate.”

Leguizamo recalled his turn as Luigi in the 1993 “Super Mario Bros.” movie. “The directors Annabel Jankel and Rocky Morton fought really hard for me to...

It used to be that video game movies were bad because video games didn’t give movies enough to work with; say what you will about Annabel Jankel and Rocky Morton’s “Super Mario Bros.,” but they had to do something to flesh out a story that basically amounted to “Italian stereotype runs from left to right.” Nowadays, in an age when interactive epics are so vast and cinematic that Playstation characters are regularly played by movie stars (and sometimes even modeled to resemble major filmmakers), it seems that video game movies are bad because video games give movies way too much to work with.

No big screen adaptation of “Uncharted” could ever hope to match the globe-trotting, rope-swinging, plane-exploding excitement of Naughty Dog’s massively popular action-adventure franchise, in which professional treasure hunter Nathan Drake scoured the planet in search of priceless artifacts, searched for every corner of the...

There are some who would have you believe that Super Mario Bros, the 1993 live-action film based on the hit Nintendo franchise, is a bad movie.

The late, great, Bob Hoskins, who actually starred as Mario, was one of them.

“It was a fuckin’ nightmare,” Hoskins told The Guardian in 2007. “The whole experience was a nightmare. It had a husband-and-wife team directing, whose arrogance had been mistaken for talent…! Fuckin’ nightmare. Fuckin’ idiots.”

Time is a great healer though and while Hoskins continued to rank the movie as his worst long after he retired, the bold ambition and inventiveness of Super Mario Bros. has seen it undergo something of a critical reappraisal over the past decade.

The Original Super Mario Bros. Movie

Directors Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel were best known for their work on the visually arresting cult TV series Max Headroom when they landed the gig of translating the...

If your problem with the polarizing Super Mario Bros. movie was that it just wasn't long enough, then we've got some fantastic news for you. Showing that Zack Snyder isn't the only filmmaker who can release extended cuts of his movies, a group of fans have put out a new cut of Super Mario Bros. that can now be watched online. Called "The Morton Jankel Cut," the new version adds about 20 minutes of deleted scenes, upping the runtime from 104 minutes to 125 minutes.

Among the added scenes is an entire subplot that was axed from the original movie, following Mario (Bob Hoskins) and Luigi (John Leguizamo) competing with a plumbing company. Some of the other new scenes include Koopa (Dennis Hopper) drowning a henchman in slime and a scene of Iggy (Fisher Stevens) and Spike (Richard Edson) performing a rap at the end. Other scenes have been re-edited and extended.

Super Mario Bros....

A newly discovered, deleted scene from the Super Mario Bros. movie has debuted online. What's more, this is just part of a newly discovered extended cut of the 1993 live-action video game adaptation, that is said to include a full 15 minutes of additional footage. Whether or not we'll ever see that full cut make its way online remains to be seen. However, based on this one scene alone, it would perhaps be a torturous yet fascinating look at a truly baffling footnote in Hollywood history.

First, a little background. This footage came from a VHS tape that was sold at an auction for the estate of producer Roland Joff&#233, who worked on the movie. It wound up in the possession of a fansite dedicated to Super Mario Bros. At the beginning of the video, they explain a little bit about the tape and what is included on it, before showcasing the scene they've decided to reveal.

Cheech Marin has revealed he was offered the lead role in the Super Mario Bros movie. Super Mario Bros was Hollywood’s first attempt at adapting a video game into a movie, but the production was famously messy from day one. Directors Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel decided that instead of the sunny, kid-friendly visuals of the game, they wanted to set the movie in a dystopian, Blade Runner-style city. After a long casting search Bob Hoskins, John Leguizamo and Dennis Hopper were chosen for Mario, Luigi and Koopa respectively.

Games creators and writers give their theories on how an upcoming crop of adaptations could avoid the same pitfalls as Assassin’s Creed, World of Warcraft and Super Mario Bros

No other film genre boasts such an unimpeachable reputation for dreadfulness as the video game adaptation. Some, such as this year’s Tomb Raider film and the zombie-themed Resident Evil efforts, almost achieve mediocrity. Others are so fascinatingly terrible that they have become Hollywood legend – for instance, the baffling interpretation of Super Mario Bros proffered by edgy British directors Annabel Jankel and Rocky Morton in 1993, in which Nintendo’s bright, joyful Mushroom Kingdom was reimagined as a futuristic dystopia called Dinohattan, where everyone was dressed in fishnets and black leather trenchcoats. A quarter of a century later, it is still impossible to understand why anyone thought that was a good idea.

The ever-expanding Marvel cinematic universe is ample proof that...

Ryan Lambie Jan 13, 2019

Super Mario Bros: The Movie remains a remarkable (and bizarre) video game movie. Here's why...

Adapting any art form into a movie presents a tricky proposition. It is, after all, easy to fall into the trap of being too reverential to the source material. Whether it happens to be a play, novel, or old television show you're making into a feature film, there has to be an element of invention, of reworking the source material into something that stands on its own as a piece of entertainment and - dare we say it - art.

This would go some way to explaining why the 1993 feature-length adaptation of Nintendo's hit video game series only vaguely resembles the property on which it was meant to be based. Released in a busy summer season - one dominated by another flick with dinosaurs in it, Jurassic Park - Super Mario Bros.

In 1993, an Oscar-nominated producer, the biggest video game company in the world, and the most famous plumbers of all time teamed up for a movie. What could possibly go wrong with a big-screen adaptation of Super Mario Bros.?

As it turned out, quite a lot.

First-time directors Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel oversaw a fraught production of the first big-budget video game movie, which would go on to be one of the most infamous bombs of the '90s and would even see stars Bob Hoskins (Mario) and Dennis Hopper (the villain, King Koopa) later disavow the project. 

"It was a really complicated...

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Co-director Rocky Morton on where he thinks 1993's Super Mario Bros movie, starring Bob Hoskins, went wrong...

Nintendo is only now cautiously exploring bringing more of its characters to the movies, and part of the reason is arguably given how it got its fingers burnt with 1993’s notorious Super Mario Bros movie. It would be fair to say that Nintendo was not happy with the movie. At all.

But then even through some form of rose-tinted specs, Super Mario Bros is not a good film, and time, if anything, has been unkinder to it. In a new interview with SciFi Now, co-director Rocky Morton – who made the film with Annabel Jankel - has been looking back at why he think it went wrong.

“Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais’ [original] script was the script that Annabel and I wanted to make”, he said. “It was a different script,...

For years, Hollywood has had an incredibly arduous time figuring out how to properly bring a video game to life on the silver screen. The results of these efforts range from mediocre to downright awful. One of the worst offenders of the cinematic video game genre came in the form of Super Mario Bros. in 1993. The film’s low quality has become nothing if not iconic, and now the director of the film seems to have a reason for why the project fell so flat. In a recent interview with SciFiNow, Super Mario Bros. director Rocky Morton explained what he thinks went wrong with the infamously bad video game movie. He said: Yeah, because Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais’ script was the script that Annabel and I wanted to make. It was a different script, and the actors were all brought onboard for that script, and ...

In the summer of 1993, Super Mario Bros. was greeted by awful reviews and grossed just $20 million at the box office on a budget of $48 million. Though the film was praised by many critics for its visual flair, the script was almost universally panned. Wrote James Berardinelli: "As everyone knows, arcade-style diversions are not known for strong, original narratives or well-developed characters. In that sense, this film is worthy of its inspiration." Ouch! Now, co-director Rocky Morton (who helmed the film alongside his creative partner and future wife Annabel Jankel) has spoken out on the "harrowing" experience of directing the video game adaptation in an interview with SciFiNow (via Uproxx). He's not kidding! Here are a few highlights from the conversation, which you can and should read in full here. 1. They cast Bob Hoskins as Mario because he was "available" (but really wanted Danny De Vito). "Danny De Vito turned us down.