August 23^rd, 2004 (12:00am) - In early April we brought news that John Woo and his Tiger Hill Studios had optioned the rights to produce a movie based on Nintendo’s once cult classic, but now extremely popular Metroid game franchise. John Woo, Terence Chang, and Brad Foxhoven, all who were to share production responsibilities for the film, had even gone on to say that the film had been scheduled for a release sometime in Winter 2005. However, according to the latest issue of the Japanese gaming magazine Nintendo Dream, Nintendo producer Yoshio Sakamoto went on the record to say that filming has not begun on the film, nor is the official production of an actual Metroid movie.

"There’s been no progress [with the movie]," comments Metroid producer Yoshio Sakamoto. "There were some misleading reports before the E3 that Metroid’s production was confirmed. But to be accurate, it’s that the company that John Woo works for has gained the rights to negotiate with Nintendo of America to make Metroid into a movie. Metroid’s production hasn’t been officially decided yet, and there’s no release plans for it."

Seeing how the term “officially” had been specifically used by Sakamoto, there’s still a chance that Metroid may become a feature film at some point in time. John Woo has expressed much enthusiasm in the past about the possibility of making Metroid into a film. Let’s just hope that it happens.