20th Century Fox Developing A 'Mega Man' Movie

Not too long ago, we heard that Nintendo was considering getting back in the business of making movies, which could result in properties like Donkey Kong, The Legend of Zelda and Metroid coming to the big screen, and maybe even a second attempt at a Super Mario Bros. movie. But there's one character familiar to Nintendo fans who already has a movie in development, and it's not because of the video game company's renewed interest in the movie business.

20th Century Fox and Chernin Entertaiment are currently developing a a Mega Man movie, based on the popular video game franchise that came straight out of Japan and landed in our Nintendo and Game Boy video game systems in the 80s and 90s.The Tracking Board reports Fox and Chernin have just started development on the Mega Man movie, so it's not a project that we'll be seeing in the immediate future, especially since video game movies often take a while to get off the ground.

For those who don't remember Mega Man, he arrived in 1987 by way of Capcom, having been called Rock Man in Japan. The side-scrolling video game had a simple story that saw a scientist named Dr. Light and his android lab assistant called Rock betrayed by an evil man named Dr. Wily.

After stealing Dr. Light's work, Dr. Wily made an evil robot equipped with a slew of weapons in an effort to take over the world. So Dr. Light decides to take on Dr. Wily by turning his lab assistant into a battle droid with armor and a huge cannon on his arm. As Mega Man defeats evil robots, he's able to mimic their weapons, making him much more powerful as the game continues.

There's definitely a superhero quality to the Mega Man story, and considering the popularity of the video game franchise, especially in Japan, it's not hard to see why Fox and Chernin would be interested in bringing Mega Man to the big screen. But it's also one of those games that will be hard to adapt into a movie that pleases all the fans out there.

Mega Man has fallen off in popularity somewhat over the years, but a collection of the first six Mega Man titles just became available for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows and Nintendo 3DS, so some people out there are still playing the games. But there's no guarantee that a movie will hold as much appeal for anyone outside of longtime video gamers.

You might remember that we reported on a Mega Man animated series earlier this year from the creators of Disney TV shows such as Ben 10 and Generator Rex. We're not sure if that project is still on the way, but it could help get younger viewers on board a potential big screen adaptation of the video game. In the meantime, you can check out this flashy fan film from a few years ago:

Is anyone out there interested in a Mega Man movie?