Illumination and Nintendo’s animated Super Mario Bros. Movie is almost assuredly going to cross the billion-dollar mark, and will probably spawn a sequel and spin-offs before it finishes its theatrical run. An interesting effect of the success of this movie is the original 1993 Super Mario Bros. live-action film getting a second life with a younger audience.
One of the original stars of the movie, John Leguizamo, has talked at length about his thoughts on the animated feature, calling it a missed opportunity to have a minority casting, and actually ended up boycotting the blockbuster. In between those thoughts, he’s talked about some very risque behind-the-scenes bits including the directors hiring real-life strippers.
“[The directors] had this dark, dark vision that Disney was not okay with so there was all this butt-heading that was incredible,” Leguizamo told Variety. “That party scene? Those were all strippers from North Carolina that they put on the set and they had them in the most revealing clothes and costumes.”
Leguizamo added that Disney was not happy and they had to cut a lot of it. The film was released by Disney via Buena Vista Pictures and Hollywood Pictures. The budget for the movie was somewhere between $42–48 million but managed to make less than $40 million.
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