Nintendo To Nominate Illumination Boss Chris Meledandri To Board Of Directors
Meledandri and Nintendo have partnered on the forthcoming
Super Mario animated feature, which Illumination is producing. In its report for the fiscal year ended March 2021, Nintendo stated:
Mr. Meledandri, the founder of Illumination Entertainment, has extensive experience as a film producer. We would like to nominate him as a new Outside Director with the expectation that he will appropriately supervise our companyʼs management from an objective perspective, while providing valuable advice to our organization, based on his broad experience and insight gained as a leader in the field of entertainment.
Nintendo is turning to an experienced film executive as it plans its expansion into the movies, as the company today said Illumination Entertainment CEO Chris Meledandri will be joining its board of directors pending approval at its shareholder annual meeting June 29.
Illumination is best known for its Despicable Me series of animated films and its Minions spin-offs.
Nintendo has been planning to bring its stable of franchises to the film industry for years. However, its plans don t appear to have come together in the expected time frame.
Nintendo World area on March 18. The park had originally planned to open the area in late July 2020, in time for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, but delayed the opening to prevent crowding, as a countermeasure against the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19). (The Olympics event itself has been delayed until this year also.) The park then planned to open the area on February 4, but this was again postponed due to the second state of emergency declaration for Osaka and other prefectures.
The park temporarily closed starting on April 25 due to the third state of emergency against COVID-19 in Osaka, among other prefectures. The announcement noted that the government is specifically asking theme parks to have no attendees during the state of emergency. The park will reopen once the government lifts the state of emergency.