The Dazzling Failures of <em>Super Mario Bros.</em>
The grimy adaptation of Nintendo’s video game was bad, but in fascinating ways that no studio would allow a potential franchise film to be today.
There’s perhaps no better example of how different the Hollywood landscape was 25 years ago than the fact that Bob Hoskins was once Disney’s choice to launch a major new franchise. 1993’s was produced for a robust $48 million, was released in the prestige summer slot of May 28, and was based on the best known video-game title in history at the height of its success. It also starred a 50-year old British character actor, was largely set in a surreal industrial hellscape, and was filled with nightmarish (at least for 7-year-old me) scenes of people being transmogrified into grinning
