Nintendo has reportedly taken down another high-profile fan project based on one of its franchises.

The project in question is Lost in Hyrule, which was planned to be a fan-made live-action movie based on The Legend Of Zelda, with an original story set after events of Majora’s Mask. Link would be played by the film’s director Chris Carpenter, with A Series of Unfortunate Events‘ Avi Lake planned to play Zelda. The fan-project advertised itself as “not-for-profit” and “unaffiliated with Nintendo”, with the creators even stating that they would halt production if Nintendo got involved.

In what can only be described as tempting fate given how protective Nintendo is of its IP, and the fact that they are working on their own live-action Legend of Zelda film, Lost in Hyrule’s creators started a Kickstarter campaign for the film, asking for $30,000 from fans that they assured would go 100% to the film’s production.

It seems this may have been enough to catch Nintendo’s attention, as after reaching almost $24,000 of their stated goal, the film’s Director Dio Traverso announced that they had to cancel the Kickstarter, with all donations being refunded as a result.

Hey y’all – we just got the unfortunate news that we need to shut down the Kickstarter campaign. On behalf of Chris and I, we want to thank everyone who believed in and supported this project. Since we’re ending the campaign early, no funds will be gathered and unfortunately we won’t be able to fulfill any rewards.

Thanks so much!

Dio Traverso

Traverso does not explicitly mention it in his announcement, but it is presumed that legal action from Nintendo is the reason the team had to shut the Kickstarter down. Director Chris Carpenter has also posted an update which may go into more detail, but it is currently only available to the project’s backers. Stay tuned for more updates as they come.

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