Read the Super Mario World script Max Landis wrote including concept art

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

If I pulled out a script I worked on when I was 19, I’m sure it would be a NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET movie with little ambition or reason for not being in the trash. It’s what you do when you’re an aspiring writer sometimes, take something you know very well and put your own spin on it. Well, that’s what Max Landis (CHRONICLE) did when he was 19 apparently when he went and wrote a 436-page script (about 7 hours of screen time) for Super Nintendo’s Super Mario World. That’s so crazy you know I can’t be making it up.

He posted the script along with some artwork for the movie on his own website; you can marvel at all details he put into the script, even song choices! He’s being a great sport about it because as people compliment the movie and ask for it to be made, he’s always quick to point out "This script sucks."

Even though, reading through, there are parts of it I enjoy, there’s some really inventive reinvention and mythologizing, some funny dialogue here and there, the occasional burst of REALLY cool action imagery…And yes, to me, the EPIC structure, which feels more like a Lord Of The Rings or Game Of Thrones than a Super Mario Game, works. I was impressed, looking back, at how many times I bring up a detail early only to repeatedly pay it off later, or trick the reader into thinking we’re going one way when we’re actually headed in the opposite direction. That’s all good. And that’s ALL that’s good. There’s no way to get around it … This. Script. Sucks.

The artwork comes from an artist named Darren Calvert; some of this art is amazing and fits into Mario World in a very stylish way. It looks dark and gritty, so maybe his version isn’t necessarily for the kids. That’s ok though, they have enough already.

Let's be honest, this can't be worse than SUPER MARIO BROS.After checking this out, I wonder what similar endeavours other screenwriters took when they were young.

Check out the script here!