The Legend of Zelda movie director Wes Ball has doubled down on his plans for the live-action adaptation, as he reveals that using motion capture throughout is not his preference.
In an interview with Polygon, Ball, fresh off directing the CGI-heavy Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, ruled out making an entirely mo-capped Legend of Zelda movie, saying it "probably isn't his choice." He reiterated that he wants his adaptation of Nintendo's fantasy adventure series to feel "grounded" and "real."
Ball backed his vision for the movie, telling the outlet: "We're working hard, and we're gonna make something great." It is something that he has thought about for a long time since he first shared his wishes to direct a Zelda movie in 2010, though, back then, he admittedly envisioned it as "the next big mo-cap Avatar-like movie."
Motion capture (mo-cap, for short) is a technique that records the movement of objects or people and then maps those movements to animate a 2D or 3D model. Ball most recently used it on Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes and plans on including a "raw" version of that movie on its home media release to offer some insight into the process.
"There's about 30 or 40 minutes of full CG in [Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes]," he said. "Every leaf, every piece of bark, you know, full CG. So I got to have a little taste of that Avatar experience, where it's just actors on a mo-cap stage pretending with all this crazy boxes and proxies for objects. That was really fun."
Nintendo announced plans to create a live-action The Legend of Zelda movie in partnership with Sony Pictures last November. Details on how it will build on the gaming company's hit world of wisdom, courage, and power are mostly a mystery, though Ball previously suggested he would love to see it as "a live-action Miyazaki."
Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. You can follow her on X/Twitter @AdeleAnkers.
