Nintendo Officially Adds Despicable Me Producer Chris Meledandri To Board Of Directors

Well, it looks like the producer of Despicable Me, Chris Meledandri, is now officially a member of the Nintendo family.

At their 81st Annual General Meeting of Shareholders, Nintendo officially addressed their appointing Chris Meledandri to their board of directors. Logically, this also counts as their first time actually addressing that fact after they had appointed him to that position at the end of June. Apparently, Meledrandri is now an “independent and non-executive outside director” within the company. He will have no direct involvement in the gaming side of the business. Rather, he will be part of the visual content side of things.

Nintendo also mentions their Super Mario movie in that same announcement. Apparently, Shigeru Miyamoto himself mentions that they specifically added Chris Meledandri to their board of directors for his Hollywood experience. Nintendo really wants to expand on their range of “visual content”. Miyamoto basically admits that experience in developing games doesn’t necessarily translate to skill in developing movies. Hence, Meledandri’s appointment. Miyamoto specifically adds that “asking for Chris’s input, as an expert with many years of experience in Hollywood, will be of great help to us in the future”.

Nintendo’s Super Mario Movie: Finally Out of Development Hell?

Chris Meledandri’s appointment to Nintendo’s board of directors marks the first time an American citizen has ever joined their ranks. It may also speed up the development of that still untitled Super Mario movie. I mean, seriously, this movie has been languishing in development hell since 2017. Nintendo had been in talks with Universal Pictures and Illumination about doing this movie since that time. However, nothing has come of it. The release date for the movie kept moving upwards, from a possible 2020 release date, and now finally to a 2022 release date. Hopefully, this release date will stick this time. Especially with Meledandri’s being now one of Nintendo’s family now.

Conclusion

Chris Meledandri is now officially a member of Nintendo’s board of directors. He will not be involved in the gaming business though. Instead, he will make movies for them, because that is specifically why he is there. Hopefully, this means that animated Super Mario movie will finally get out of development hell already. Maybe it will even be ready by 2022, like they promise.

Source: www.nintendo.co.jp