From Despicable Me to Great N: Illumination Entertainment’s Chris Meledandri joins Nintendo’s board of directors
In a piece of news that led us to check if our calendar wasn’t five weeks ahead, from the stellar financial report of Nintendo it also emerged that the Californian has joined the board of directors Chris Meledandri, founder and head of Illumination Entertainment. For those of you not familiar with the name of the former Blue Sky Studios animator, this is the producer of despicable Me. Meledandri, as part of the deal between Universal and the Big N from which Super Nintendo World was born, will also take care of the Super Mario movie.
Illumination Entertainment and Nintendo: the role of Chris Meledandri
Nintendo’s decision to move more openly into mainstream popular culture is at the heart of Chris Meledandri’s involvement, and Illumination Entertainment’s animated film slated to hit theaters next year is the first step. The entry of the animator among the executives of the Kyoto giant will only be approved during the interview with investors next month. The formal role chosen for this new Western lever is that of “External director“. As a detail, compared to the astronomical revenues we just talked about, it’s small but interesting.
This unexpected announcement comes in light of the president’s recent comments Shuntaro Furukawa about animation projects outside of Mario. The project was born out of the brutal honesty with which Meledandri opened up to Shigeru Miyamoto about his past failures. His sincerity earned him a trust that was apparently rewarded with a film of promising progress, if an American now sits on the board of directors of the most traditionalist Japanese company in the world. One thing is sure: the Big N cross-media situation now has our fullest attention.
Now it’s up to you to tell us yours: what do you think of this turning point? Let us know below, and as always don’t forget to stay on TechGameWorld.com for all the most important news for gamers and more. For your purely gaming needs, you can instead find the best discounts in digital format on Instant Gaming.