The Legend of Zelda (film)

The Legend of Zelda is a 2008 fantasy adventure film directed by Alfonso Cuarón, produced by Nintendo and written by David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin, based on the video game series, and the seventh film in the Nintendo Cinematic Universe (NCU). It stars Elijah Wood, Winona Ryder, Christopher Plummer, Emma Thompson, Mary Steenburgen, Keith David and Morgan Freeman. The film follows Link as he embarks on a quest to save Princess Zelda from the clutches of the sinister Ganondorf.

After the mixed reception to the 1996 film, Nintendo reacquired the rights to the character though Universal Pictures retained distribution rights. Zemeckis, who had expressed interest in directing Kirby for Nintendo, was brought onboard and Paul Haggis began work on a script that would be much closer to the 1989 television series of the same name. In November 2006, Wood was hired to portray the role of Link and Tom Cruise was hired to rewrite Haggins' screenplay. His script positioned the film as a reboot of the series, distancing it from the 1996 film to give the new version its own identity. Cruise was ultimately not credited for his writing.

The Legend of Zelda premiered at the Tower Theatre in Sacramento on November 17, 2008, and released in the United States on November 27, and in Japan on December 22, as part of Phase One of the NCU. It was also a box office success, grossing $617 million against a $101 million budget, and received generally positive reviews, with critics praising the plot, casting, performances (particularly of Wood and Ryder), humor, action sequences, visual effects, emotional weight, and faithfulness to the source material. It was praised for its darker plot, sets and a story appropriate for a young audience. It was followed by The Legend of Zelda: The Sacred Realm (2012) and The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds (2015).

Plot
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Live-action cast

 * Elijah Wood as Link
 * Winona Ryder as Princess Zelda
 * Christopher Plummer as King Harkinikan
 * Emma Thompson as Impa
 * Pom Klementieff as Princess Ruto
 * Golshifteh Farahani as Nabooru
 * Uma Thurman as Great Fairy
 * Mary Steenburgen as Saria (motion-capture)
 * Joey King as Saria (voice)
 * Michael Clarke Duncan as Darunia
 * Nick Offerman as Rauru
 * Julia Butters as Malon
 * Charles Marinet as Talon
 * Keith David as Ganondorf
 * Austin Butler as Dark Link

Voice cast

 * Zelda Williams as Navi
 * Tress MacNeille as Twinrova
 * Morgan Freeman as Great Deku Tree

Development
After the release of Robert Zemeckis' The Legend of Zelda in 1996, screenwriter James Schamus was planning a sequel which would continue the story featuring Link. During the filming of the original film, producer Shigeru Miyamoto had a target June 2006 theatrical release date. On January 18, 2002, Miyamoto confirmed Nintendo would be providing the money for the original film's production budget, with Universal distributing, because Universal did not meet the deadline for filming a sequel. Director Alfonso Caurón felt it would be better to deviate from Zemeckis' old style to continue the franchise, arguing his film was like a parallel universe one-shot video game, and their next film needed to be, in Miyamoto's words, "really starting the Nintendo Zelda franchise".

Pre-production
Cuarón had expressed interest in directing the Kirby film adaptation. Tim Hill had taken that project, so Nintendo offered him Zelda. Cuarón was reluctant as he was unsure if he could replicate Zemeckis' previous style, but Nintendo explained that was not their intent. Cuarón's primary inspiration was Takashi Tezuka and Ocarina of Time. He replicated every game series that he pinned-up during pre-production, from the many comics he browsed, in the final film. Zemeckis said that he planned to show Link's struggle with the monster within him, while Miyamoto added the film would explore "that element of wish fulfillment, of overcoming an injustice or a bully and tapping into a strength that you didn't quite realize you had in yourself". Tezuka also said the film would be "a lot more of a love story between Link and Zelda". In January 2003, a November 27, 2008, release date was set.

Paul Haggis said the film would follow up The Legend of Zelda, but stressed it would be more tonally similar to the TV show. He compared his script to Lord of the Rings (2001-03), which was a very different film from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), but still in the same continuity. After the studio rejected a treatment by another screenwriter in November 2003, Haggis wrote three drafts before departing in early 2005 to write other films like The Last Kiss (2006) and Flags Of Our Fathers (2006). Wood, in June 2006, began discussions to play Link, and arranged a deal that included Tom Cruise as a writer, with a screenplay draft he was contractually obligated to turn in within a month. He did so, and continued to polish his draft as late as halfway through principal photography. Cuarón acknowledged the only remaining similarity between the two films was Link leaving Korok, and that the film was a unique reboot, as generally audiences would have expected another forty-minute origin story. There were previous discussions to set the first act in Thailand. Cruise felt audiences were left restless waiting for the character to arrive in Zemeckis' film. Miyamoto commented, "we didn't want to tell the origin story again, because we thought people were so familiar with it, which is why we didn't tell that... One reason we made Legend of Zelda was to get Link into the [ Nintendo Cinematic Universe] canon."

Filming
Principal photography began on April 29, 2007 at Stage 9 at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California. Filming at the Neuschwanstein Castle, which was eventually selected as the principal location for Hyrule Castle, took place on May 13, 2007. The Palace of Westminster was selected as the location for Clock Town Bank, while Christ Church, Oxford was the location for the Hyrule trophy room. Location shooting took place in the Tunisian desert, at the Plaza de España in Seville, London, China, Vancouver, San Diego, and Italy (Villa del Balbianello on Lake Como, and in the former royal Palace of Caserta).

In June, the crew moved to the Yuma Desert in Arizona for two weeks of Gerudo Wasteland exteriors. Production then moved to the redwood forests of northern California near Crescent City where two weeks were spent shooting the Korok forest exteriors, and then concluded at Warner Bros. in San Rafael, California for about ten days of bluescreen shots. One of two "skeletal" post-production units shooting background matte plates spent a day in Death Valley. The other was a special Steadicam unit shooting forest backgrounds from July 24 to August 1, 2007, for the fight near the middle of the film. Steadicam inventor Garrett Brown personally operated these shots as he walked through a disguised path inside the forest shooting at less than one frame per second. By walking at about 5 mph (8 km/h) and projecting the footage at 24 frame/s, the motion seen in the film appeared as if it were moving at around 120 mph (190 km/h). Filming concluded on December 3, 2007, with final work being done in June 2008.

Music

 * Further information: The Legend of Zelda (soundtrack) and Music of the Nintendo Cinematic Universe

Patrick Doyle was selected to compose the score, having previously collaborated with Caurón for A Little Princess and Great Expectations. Doyle composed the score at his homes in Los Angeles and Tanglewood before recording it in London in September 2008. James Horner was the first choice to compose the score but turned it down. The soundtrack album was released on November 9, 2008 in CD format.

Theatrical
The Legend of Zelda premiered on November 17, 2008, at the Tower Theatre in Sacramento and was released in theaters on November 27 in the United States, where it opened in 3,505 theaters, and on December 22 in Japan. The film is part of Phase One of the NCU.

Home media
The Legend of Zelda was released by Universal Studios Home Entertainment on DVD (in separate widescreen and pan and scan editions) and Blu-ray Disc on April 15, 2009.

Box office
The Legend of Zelda opened theatrically on November 27, 2008, alongside Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, Quantum of Solace and Bolt, and grossed $22.2 million in its opening weekend, ranking number three at the North American box office behind Twilight.

The Legend of Zelda grossed $500 million in the United States and Canada, and $200 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $700 million. With a production budget of $200 million, Zelda is Zemeckis' most expensive original project. IndieWire speculated that the marketing could push the final sum to $300–350 million, though analysts predicted lower advertising costs than usual, owing to inexpensive live sports ads. Box office analyst Jeff Bock estimated it would need to make $400–$500 million in order to break even. In January 2009, rival studios expected the film to lose up to $100 million, but Nintendo insisted losses would not top $50 million. Zemeckis was reported to receive twenty percent of the first-dollar gross.

Zelda was projected to take $25–30 million internationally over its first five days. In South Korea, pre-sale IMAX tickets sold out and weekend previews totaled $717,000 from 590 venues. Another four days there yielded $4.13 million from about 2,200 screens, bringing the cume to $5.1 million by the end of the week. The film debuted to $53 million in forty-one countries, grossing $7.1 million in the United Kingdom, $6.7 million in France, and $4.2 million in Germany. Twilight made $58.1 million in its second weekend, with China ($30 million from first showings), the U.K. ($13.1 million), France ($10.7 million), Germany ($8.7 million), and South Korea ($8.2 million) as its largest markets. Its third weekend garnered $30.6 million, comprising $16.4 million from the U.K., $13.2 million from France, $11.4 million from Germany, $10.3 million from South Korea, and $10.2 million from China. Two weeks in Japan accumulated $11.4 million. Zelda opened in India on February 8, 2009, and made about $576,000 in the first three days. Twilight became the highest grossing film of all time in Estonia, with a total gross of $1.2 million.

With 65% of American and Canadian theaters operating at 25–40% capacity, the first eleven days acquired $20.2 million from 2,810 theaters; $2.5 million in Canada, $12 million in the U.S., and the rest from previews. The second, third, and fourth weekends added $6.7 million, $4.7 million, and $3.4 million, respectively. Twilight remained atop the box office in its fifth weekend with $2.7 million, before ceding to Quantum of Solace in its sixth weekend.

Critical response
The film received generally positive reviews, with critics praising the plot, casting, performances (particularly of Cruise and Kidman), humor, action sequences, visual effects, emotional weight, and faithfulness to the source material. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film received an 87% score, based on 55 reviews, with an average score of 8.54 out of 10. The website’s critical consensus reads, “The Legend of Zelda is a action-packed adventure that all fans of the series will enjoy, and proves that 2020 isn’t such a bad year for movies after all.” On an A+ to F Scale, the film received a “B+”.

Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 78% based on 205 reviews, with an average rating of 7.1/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "A life-affirming, if saccharine, epic treatment of a spirit-lifting figure in sports history". On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 72 out of 100, based on 43 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade A on scale of A to F.

Robert Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 3.5 stars out of 4, and wrote: "The movie's races are thrilling because they must be thrilling; there's no way for the movie to miss on those, but Zemeckis and cinematographer, Erik Messerschmidt, get amazingly close to the action."

Accolades
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Sequels
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Transcripts
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