The Super Mario Brothers could be smashing bricks on the big screen soon.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Nintendo is in talks with Universal and Illumination Entertainment (the shop behind the "Despicable Me" franchise) for an animated movie version of their popular video game series.

Mario and Luigi have appeared on the big screen before, in a 1994 live-action film starring Bob Hoskins. It was a critical and commercial dud, however.

Last year, Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima indicated they wanted to try their hand at a movie, and the 2014 Sony email hack revealed that the two companies had been talking. Universal seems a more appropriate partner now, since it is creating a Super Nintendo World theme park in Japan.

With the failure of the live-action movie, it makes sense that Nintendo would choose the animated route. The company has been trying to expand their brand onto the big and small screens, with rumors of a "Legends of Zelda" TV series being developed at Netflix (and which never came to fruition).