Film producer Chris Meledandri has been officially elected Nintendo’s Outside Director. He is the first westerner to hold such a position on the Japanese firm’s Board of Directors. Meledandri had been nominated in May, and the appointment was made official this week at Nintendo’s 81st annual meeting of shareholders.

Meledandri is best known for founding the film studio Illumination and serving as a producer for the Despicable Me franchise of movies. Before founding this studio, he also worked at 20th Century Fox where he oversaw creative and business operations for Blue Sky Studios, the company responsible for the Ice Age movies.

Currently Meledandri is partnering with Shigeru Miyamoto to produce a Super Mario animated movie through Illumination studio. This project is slated to release in 2022.

To reiterate Nintendo’s intention in electing Meledandri to this position, here are their comments on the nomination from their fiscal report in May this year:

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.

We believe that the addition of Mr. Meledandri will help to ensure our balance of diversity, including global perspective, knowledge, and experience, further enhancing the effectiveness of our Board of Directors.

While this news was expected since the nomination back in May, it is now official and is another step in strengthening the bond between Illumination and Nintendo.

Could this partnership lead to an animated Zelda movie? Is that something you want to see? Let us know down below.

Source: Nintendo (via VGC)

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