Re: 'The Legend of Zelda' - movie.
About the whole "romance" issue, I have some thoughts.
Hardcore Zelda fans (those who study the timeline, study which event took place when, etc.) are in the minority of those who are just fans of Zelda. And plain vanilla fans are arguably in the minority of video game players. And video game players are also arguably in the minority of the US population, let alone the world population.
Super-Fergus, when you say that your movie needs to appeal to a wide audience, I absolutely applaud that. You're right on track! There were only a few people who had read the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but when the movies came out, they saw a tremendous growth in book sales, not to mention the sheer amount of people who rushed to the box office to see these movies. The LOTR trilogy appealed to a very wide audience, but in the process, sacrifices to the storyline had to be made. There were several deviations from the book in the movie, but in my personal opinion, these things just made LOTR better. One deviation would be that of the relationship between Aragorn and Arwen. Arwen did NOT appear that many times in the book! And yet, Arwen was much of the driving force behind Aragorn's actions. Yes, Aragorn fought to free his country from the oppresion of Sauron, but Arwen was still in his thoughts, even when he tried to leave her (in the movie, not the book!).
Back to the issue of "romance" in Zelda. If a Zelda movie were to appeal to a wide audience, would it be in the best interests of the audience to question whether Link had a relationship with anyone? This idea appeals only to a few people in the Zelda fan world; all you need to do is to head over to the Romance Thread to see that.
In Pirates of the Caribbean, Elizabeth and Will were very obviously, completely and head over heels in love with each other. But there were always the slightest hints that Elizabeth could have been in love with Jack, or could have been in love with Norrington. But you always had Elizabeth and Will's love to come back to base on. To me, this was an extremely satisfying point to the movie, and the possibility of other romances was delightfully tittilating. Yet this romance (and possible romances) did nothing to detract from the action/adventure parts of PotC. In fact, the part in World's End where Will and Elizabeth are shouting their wedding vows and fighting a battle was one of the most touching parts of the film.
It seems to me that movie-going people don't particularly enjoy "maybe they were in love, maybe they weren't, it's up to you to decide." People go to the movies to escape from life for an hour or two, and many like to be told what to think. Take for instance, the film Blade Runner. When this one was released, it was considered extremely avant garde for it's time. Why? Because it tried to make the audience draw their own conclusions. Now, it's a multi-million dollar moneymaker with three studios fighting over the rights for it, but back in 1982, it was shot down like nothing else. Life is in the air for all of us at one time or another, most especially our relationships. A movie needs to be grounded in something like romance for it to appeal to wider audiences.
I think it is possible for Link and Zelda to fall in love, and still keep the action hot. If it the balance between Link's love for Zelda and his love for Hyrule is kept, then there shouldn't be a problem. And it doesn't even have to necessarily be Zelda that Link loves. Part of maturing is learning to care for someone more deeply than one cares for himself/herself, and I believe that a love for Link would reflect his growth in a very good way if it were portrayed correctly. IMO, my concern would be that Link would actually come across as selfish if all he did was fight Ganon's forces and never actually commit to anyone. It might show that all Link cared about was action and Hyrule, and that might come across negatively to many people.
I hope that I have not showed myself to be a know-it-all, because I am not. When I wrote this, I was not trying to be arrogant or push my view on anyone, especially not you, Super-Fergus. I just had some thoughts that needed to be voiced.
I wish you the very best of luck, Super-Fergus. I understand that films can be difficult to make, but when they are through, they can be very rewarding. A quick question though: were you plannning to release this in independent theatres first and then move it to commercial theatres, or just release it into commercial?
Good luck in your endeavors!