'Mario' Movie to Be Produced by Nintendo and Illumination

Mario is heading back to the big screen.

Nintendo is working with Illumination Entertainment on a movie based on its most iconic game character, with legendary creator Shigeru Miyamoto set to produce with Illumination head Chris Meledandri.

There were no details on the title, release dates or storyline, but Universal Pictures will handle distribution worldwide.

The announcement came via a press release on the Kyoto-headquartered game maker's website on Thursday morning, local time, the day after it announced its third-quarter financial results. The news also appeared on Nintendo of America's official Twitter page. 

Illumination Entertainment is the studio behind the billion-dollar Despicable Me franchise and such recent hits as Sing and Secret Life of Pets.

Mario's return to movies follows the 1993 live-action film Super Mario Bros. The pic, which starred Bob Hoskins as the cheeky Italian plumber and John Leguizamo as his brother Luigi, was critically panned and a huge-box office flop, which reportedly put Nintendo off movie adaptations of Mario or any of its other characters for many years.