Shortly after a trove of emails were leaked to the media from last week's massive Sony hack, it was revealed that Sony Pictures Entertainment was hard at work and deep in negotiations to secure the film rights for Nintendo's "Super Mario Bros.," the Japanese game company's iconic franchise, in hopes of creating a feature-length animated motion picture adaptation. Of the many websites that leaked information on the hack, BuzzFeed obtained a series of the released emails.

Clarified to Sony Pictures executive Amy Pascal in an email dated Oct. 23, with the subject line "Mario," producer Avi Arad ("Spider-Man") stated, "I am the proud father of mario the animated film [sic]."

Pascal indicated that tapping Genndy Tartakovsky, the director of "Hotel Transylvania" and creator of the acclaimed Cartoon Network series "Dexter's Laboratory," would be the step in the right direction in a subsequent email, stating the filmmaker would be "perfect" for the project. However, a representative for Tartakovsky said he "is not involved."

In a recent update, Arad has since denied that Sony's deal with Nintendo for an animated "Super Mario Bros." film has closed, telling BuzzFeed that his negotiations with Nintendo were, in fact, "just the beginning." BuzzFeed also noted additional e-mails leaked from Sony Pictures executives state that, provided the films are made, a deal with Nintendo could lead to a "Mario empire," similar to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

However, this would require a good team backing the project.

BuzzFeed clarified that if the "Super Mario Bros." film were signed and went to production, would become one of numerous video game film adaptations currently in development. According to Gamespot, Ubisoft has a total of six films in the pipeline, including movies based on "Assassin's Creed," "Watch Dogs" and "Splinter Cell."

Recently, Gamespot confirmed that Sony Pictures Entertainment is filming a "Last of Us" movie. Other video game companies have been the the target of production studios, like Konami, which is developing a film based on "Metal Gear Solid," and Blizzard Entertainment, which is moving forward with a Warcraft movie. Capcom is also in the talks of developing a new "Dead Rising" and "Resident Evil" movies, while an "Angry Birds" film is scheduled for 2016.

Filmed by music video directors Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel, the "Super Mario Bros." were last adapted for the big screen in a 1993 motion picture starring Bob Hoskins as Mario and John Leguizamo as Luigi. Hoskins, who died in April, said the Mario movie was the worst project he'd ever been involved with.