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    Nintendo eyeing filmmaking for growth after Mariners sale 

    By SHOOTUpdated:No Comments1754 Views
    In this March 20, 2016 file photo, a shopper on an escalator passes by the Nintendo logo at an electronics store in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi, File)

    By Yuri Kageyama, Business Writer

    TOKYO (AP) --

    Japanese video game maker Nintendo Co. is eyeing the movie business for growth.

    Company spokesman Makoto Wakae said Monday details are undecided but the work might be a theater release or a DVD.

    Nintendo, which makes the Wii U home console and Nintendo 3DS hand-held machine, has licensed its game characters in the past, such as with its Pokemon movies, but it is now thinking about make its own film content.

    It won't become a full-fledged film studio, but filmmaking is an area it has chosen for future investment of proceeds from selling its stake in the major league Seattle Mariners, planned for later this year, according to Kyoto-based Nintendo.

    The Japanese daily newspaper Asahi reported Monday that Nintendo's work might be 3-D animation. It said Nintendo is in talks with various film companies on a possible partnership.

    Wakae said an announcement will be made, but even the details of the Mariners sale have not yet been announced.

    Nintendo has seen its growth stagnate in recent eyes amid competition from smartphones and other devices, and films could revive interest in its franchise, which also includes The Legend of Zelda.

    Nintendo reported a 24 billion yen ($216 million) loss for January-March, bigger than the loss it reported the previous year. For the fiscal year ended March 31, it earned 16.5 billion yen ($148 million), down 61 percent from the previous fiscal year.

    Recent Wii U sales have lagged rivals Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 4 console and Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox One, including the key year-end holiday shopping season.

    After years of scoffing at the threat from smartphones, Nintendo did an about face last year and entered an alliance with Japanese mobile game company DeNA Co. to develop games for mobile devices.

    It has also said its new game platform codenamed NX will be launched globally in March next year.

    In April, Nintendo of America said it's selling its majority stake in the Seattle Mariners to a group of minority owners led by new chairman and CEO John Stanton.

    Nintendo is selling all but 10 percent of its stake in the franchise and the regional sports network ROOT Sports. The deal is subject to approval by Major League Baseball, expected during league meetings in August.

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    Tags:Nintendo



    William Dafoe, Jonathan Bailey and Peter Dinklage join the voice cast for Starburn Industries’ “Lincoln in the Bardo”

    Friday, August 28, 2026
    Peter Dinklage (photo by Whitney Matewe)

    Actors Willem Dafoe, Jonathan Bailey and Peter Dinklage have joined the voice cast of Starburns Industries’ “Lincoln in the Bardo,” based on acclaimed author George Saunders’ New York Times bestseller and 2017 Booker Prize-winner.  Saunders adapted the screenplay, with Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Duke Johnson directing.  It was announced earlier that Tom Hanks stars as the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, in the live action portion of the film.  CAA Media Finance and WME Independent are handling sales at the upcoming TIFF: The Market.

    The film employs a unique blend of stop-motion animation and live action to explore one of the most intimate moments of Lincoln’s life, centering on his relationship with his recently deceased eleven-year-old son.  Blending history and imagination, the story unfolds through an unforgettable ensemble of characters – living and dead, historical and invented – to explore themes of love, empathy, and the human capacity for connection in the face of unimaginable grief.

    Reverend Everly Thomas – the ghost of a minister who died believing he would go to heaven, but, to his dismay, found out otherwise – is voiced by Dafoe.  Bailey is voicing Roger Bevins, the ghost of a young gay man who took his own life over a failed love affair and instantly regretted it.  Dinklage is voicing Hans Vollman, a ghost obsessed with his dream of being reunited with his much-younger wife.

    Four-time Academy Award nominee Dafoe’s credits include animated films “Finding Nemo,” “Fantastic Mr. Fox” and “The Boy and the Heron,” as well as “At Eternity’s Gate,” “The Florida Project,” “Shadow of the Vampire” and seminal Vietnam movie... Read More

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