In 1993, “Super Mario Bros.” became the first live-action feature film based on a video game. It didn’t go well. With a budget just south of $50 million, “Super Mario Bros.” grossed a measly $20 million in the United States and its results have been poor abroad. Its failure was essentially a fait accompli given the behind-the-scenes turmoil that saw directors Annabel Jankel and Rocky Morton briefly locked out of the editing room, but the film itself was the kind of Hollywood debacle too strange to ignore. The production design was striking, the creature effects inventive, and the casting completely bizarre. Bob Hoskins as Mario opposite Dennis Hopper as King Koopa? It might not seem outrageous today, but at the time it was bizarre to see respected actors seemingly getting bogged down in what many saw as glorified publicity.
As an avid gamer at the time, I I found it strange. Yes, I was obsessed with beating “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” on my Sega Genesis, but, as a theater student during my first year of college, I never thought about how much it would be awesome to watch a Sonic and Tails movie. collecting rings for two hours. The same goes for Nintendo’s Mario-verse. In theory, I could see how saving Princess Peach could be useful for a narrative feature, but I didn’t play the game for the story. I played it for the pleasure of completing the game. (And not doing homework in class.)
My tone would have changed if Jeffrey Katzenberg had kicked down my dorm door and thrown $1 million on my unmade bed while I was busy whipping some fool on EA’s “NHLPA Hockey ’93.” For that money, I would have treated “Super Mario Bros.” as if it were “War and Peace”. But if I doesn’t I need money, why should I care? Clearly, some of Hollywood’s biggest actors thought the same thing when they were offered millions of dollars to star in the film.
Terminator and Batman didn’t want to be part of Super Mario Bros.
From a 1992 Los Angeles Times autopsy about the bombing of “Super Mario Bros. “, Disney had an extremely ambitious wish list throughout the film’s development. At first, he focused on Danny DeVito to play Mario and tried to sweeten the deal by offering him the director’s chair. He refused. At one point, Tom Hanks was attached to play Luigi, but the studio changed direction after the star experienced serious box office turmoil in 1990 with “Joe Versus the Volcano” and “Bonfire of the Vanities ” (which, judging by their production dates, probably freed Hanks to appear in “Sleepless in Seattle”).
The studio aimed just as high when it came to Koopa’s role. They contacted none other than Arnold Schwarzenegger to play Mario and Luigi’s nemesis, who at the time had just starred in the groundbreaking sci-fi action blockbuster “Terminator 2: Judgment Day.” The Austrian Oak was adopted, although it is difficult to say that he made a wise choice in opting for John McTiernan’s Confused Flop “Last Action Hero” (which took some of the 1993 box office heat away from “Super Mario Bros.” as far as entertainment industry reporting goes). Disney also checked on Michael Keaton’s availability, but the “Batman” and “Batman Returns” star wasn’t looking to double-cross the franchise.
Casting any of the aforementioned stars (specifically Schwarzenegger and Keaton at that time) in “Super Mario Bros.” would have likely increased the production budget by $15-20 million, thus making the film a failure for the ages. Instead, it’s an oddly molded curiosity, a cinematic mutt so hobbled you want to fight for it.
