Nintendo's game characters are set to hit the big screen as the Japanese company has been negotiating with movie makers to form an alliance in a bid to enter into the movie production business. With the move, Nintendo wants to further promote its own video games such as "Super Mario Bros" and lead more people to play the games amid falling sales in its game console business.

The company is working out details of the planned new business with potential partners, but the first production is likely to be an animated movie featuring "Mario" or other popular game characters such as those of "The Legend of Zelda."

Movies featuring game characters have been produced before, but Nintendo has not been directly involved with the production of them although it has received royalties for the use of its characters.

Nintendo has been suffering from the weak performance of its game console business in the face of the growing popularity of smartphone games.

Last year, Nintendo entered an alliance with Japanese mobile game company DeNA Co. to develop games for mobile devices. It has also said its new game platform codenamed NX will be launched globally in March next year.