Sonic the Hedgehog (film)


 * For other uses of the term "Sonic the Hedgehog" see Sonic the Hedgehog (disambiguation).

Sonic the Hedgehog is an upcoming live action animated film adaptation based on the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. The film is directed by Jeff Fowler in his directorial debut and the screenplay is written by Patrick Casey, Josh Miller and Oren Uziel, from a story by Van Robichaux and Evan Susser. The film will feature Ben Schwartz as the film's titular hero, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Jim Carrey as Dr. Eggman, alongside James Marsden as Tom Wachowski, Tika Sumpter, Adam Pally, and Neal McDonough.

The film, which is expected to be a CGI/live action hybrid film, is an American–Japanese joint venture between several parties. It is being co-produced and financed by Paramount Pictures, with Neal Moritz serving as producer as well through his Original Film banner. Tim Miller also serves as executive producer under his animation company Blur Studio, and Sega's Marza Animation Planet unit assists with the animation. It is the first entry in a planned film series. and is currently set for a release on 8 November 2019 by Paramount Pictures.

Initially, Sony Pictures acquired the film rights to Sonic the Hedgehog from Sega in 2013, and officially gave the green-light at a private joint Sega/Sony Pictures press conference announcing the film on 10 June 2014. In October 2017, due to financing issues, Sony sold the film rights to Paramount, who retained the film's production staff.

Plot
Tom Wachowski, the town sheriff of small town Green Hills, goes on a journey to San Francisco in his efforts to assist Sonic, an anthropomorphic delinquent hedgehog, and help him recover his rings from the evil Dr. Eggman, while the government is trying to catch him at the same time.

Live-action cast

 * Jim Carrey as Ivo Robotnik / Dr. Eggman, a brilliant, but evil and insane scientist who is out to steal Sonic's rings and conquer the world.
 * James Marsden as Tom Wachowski, the newly appointed sheriff of the small town of Green Hills, Montana, who ends up going on a road trip to San Francisco with Sonic and vows to help the hedgehog defeat Dr. Robotnik.
 * Lee Majdoub as Agent Stone, an agent who works closely with Dr. Eggman.
 * Tika Sumpter as Tom Wachowski's wife.
 * Frank C. Turner as Crazy Carl

Voice cast

 * Ben Schwartz as Sonic the Hedgehog, an anthropomorphic "juvenile delinquent" blue hedgehog who can run at super-sonic speeds and is on the run from the government.

Unknown roles

 * Adam Pally
 * Natasha Rothwell
 * Neal McDonough
 * Debs Howard
 * Elfina Luk

Earlier attempts
Attempts to adapt Sonic the Hedgehog date back to 1993, during development of the cartoon. Then-consumer products director of Sega of America Michealene Risley was tasked to find financial backing from Hollywood producers to develop a potential feature film based of the franchise. At the time, some Sega of America executives, in particular Tom Kalinske, had reservations of doing a feature-length film due to the risk of it damaging the franchise, as the Super Mario Bros. film had been released to critical and commercial thrashing during the period. "There is really is that fear that a bad movie could potentially hurt your brand," Kalinske told Kotaku in 2018. "The Sonic brand was strong enough to probably withstand it, but there is that fear." After over a year of negotiations, Sega struck a development deal with MGM in August 1994, with backing from Pen Densham's company, Trilogy Entertainment Group.

The treatment, completed and submitted to MGM in May 1995, was written by Richard Jefferies, who had written The Vagrant for MGM several years prior. Jefferies' treatment centered on a struggling student, the son of an unemployed computer scientist, attempting to use his father's supercomputer to complete his school project before deciding to plug his Sega Saturn in to play Sonic X-treme, which was meant to be a tie-in to the planned movie. Sonic and Dr. Eggman would've escaped the console, and Sonic would have to team up with the student to stop Eggman from creating virtual reality experiences from famous world landmarks to sell at enormously high prices.

The treatment was well-recieved by Sega executives, though Sega of Japan suggested that Eggman should be replaced by an original villain to make the idea look "fresh." Before production could begin, MGM pulled out of the film, citing financial issues and creative differences. After a failed attempt to pitch the movie at DreamWorks, the movie was shelved.

Development
Sony Pictures Entertainment acquired the rights to distribute a film based on Sonic the Hedgehog in 2013. On 3 December 2013, Sony Pictures Digital Domain Names, Inc., a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, filed a notice of registration for three inactive websites addressed as "SonicTheHedgehog-Movie.com", "SonicTheHedgehog-Movie.net" and "SonicTheHedgehogMovie.net". The registrations were reported by The Sonic Stadium on 7 December, but neither Sony Pictures nor Sega confirmed the existence of a proposed film project at the time.

On 20 March 2014, a film adaptation was first hinted when released a rumor about the film, stating that it would receive a "Dark Knight treatment" and posted a writer shortlist of proposed writers involved. On 10 June 2014, the official Sonic website was updated, with a locked section listing "TV and Movies." Later that same day, at a private Sega/Sony Pictures press conference, reported the confirmation of a live-action animated film based on Sonic the Hedgehog, which would be a joint venture between Sony Pictures and Marza Animation Planet, and that Sony had green-lit the project. It would be produced by Neal H. Moritz by his Original Film banner alongside Takeshi Ito, Mie Onishi and Toru Nakahara, and written by Evan Susser and Van Robichaux.

It was revealed on 21 June 2014 that Sonic the Hedgehog and its eventual successor films will be a separate continuity from the Sonic Boom continuity. On 19 November 2014, Van Robichaux stated that the film production team is "aiming for [a] PG-13 [rating]".

In February of 2016, Hajime Satomi, the CEO of Sega, went on record and stated that Sonic the Hedgehog was scheduled for 2018. On 31 October 2016, The Hollywood Reporter reported that Blur Studio's Tim Miller, who had left directing Deadpool 2 due to creative differences, and Jeff Fowler had been hired in 2016 to develop the film; Fowler would make his directorial debut, and both Miller and Fowler would executive produce. Patrick Casey and Josh Miller were writing the screenplay.

It was announced on 2 October 2017 that Viacom-owned Paramount Pictures had acquired the film rights to Sonic the Hedgehog from Sony, replacing the latter as distributor. Sony had temporally shut down production before the switch after placing it into turnaround. The announcement came after Neal Moritz's Original Film banner signed a first-look production deal with Paramount the prior month, ending their previous deal with Sony, and several months after Sony's film financing partner LStar Capital ended its deal with Sony due to a string of box office failures from the studio. Despite the change of studios, the production staff working on the film remained employed and moved to Paramount as well. This is not the first time Paramount and Sega have crossed paths - from 1969 to 1983, both were subsidiaries of Gulf and Western Industries.

On 22 February 2018, an official press release was put out confirming the film's move to Paramount and a release date of November 2019, a date that was first reported by The Hollywood Reporter two days prior. Sega will have creative input into the project and will co-finance it with Paramount, who will release the film worldwide.

Independent outlet Omega Underground reported on 4 March 2018 that the film's producers were circling Junkie XL to compose the film's musical score, reuniting him with Miller once again after doing the score for Deadpool. The site also reported that Paramount was aiming to begin filming at some point in July, backing up story co-writer Van Robichaux's speculation he tweeted a month prior. On 29 May 2018, it was revealed that the film would have a budget of $90 million.

On 12 June 2018, it was later stated that shots of the film would be filmed at Vancouver's Highway 19 during mid-September 2018, and that the movie's current title is "SONIC". At Too Many Games in 2018, Johnny Gioeli stated that “Sega Has Nothing To Do With The Sonic Movie”. Takashi Iizuka soon after corrected though, that he would be supervising the film. Sonic the Hedgehog was originally slated for a 15 November 2018 release, but after Sony Pictures' turnaround, it is now scheduled to be released in the United States on 8 November 2019 by Paramount Pictures. In an exclusive IGN interview the first official poster for the film was released on 10 December 2018, revealing its official title as Sonic the Hedgehog.

Casting
On 29 May 2018, it was reported that Paul Rudd was in talks for a lead role as Tom, "a cop who befriends Sonic and will likely team up to defeat Dr. Eggman". Paramount later clarified that this was not the case, but that Rudd had been considered for the role at one point. The following day, it was announced that James Marsden had been cast in an undisclosed role, later revealed to be Tom Wachowski. On 7 June 2018, it was announced that Tika Sumpter was cast to star opposite James Marsden in an undisclosed role, later revealed to be Tom Wachowski's wife. Jim Carrey was cast to play the villain, Dr. Robotnik. Ben Schwartz later joined the film's cast in August 2018 as the voice of Sonic the Hedgehog. A few days later, Adam Pally and Neal McDonough were cast. Debs Howard and Elfina Luk already joined the cast.

Filming
On 1 April 2018, it was announced that filming was going to start on 30 July in Vancouver, instead of Atlanta as previously reported.

Principal photography commenced on 24 July 2018 and ended in Vancouver, British Columbia, Ladysmith and Vancouver Island. During filming, the picture was shot under the working title "Casino Night", a reference to the level in Sonic the Hedgehog 2. A casting call was ordered to run on 18 Aug 2018, 12:00 pm - 6:00 pm PT and 19 Aug 2018, 10:00 am - 2:00 pm PT for residents of Ladysmith, BC. The roles were for the "townsfolk" from the fictional town, Green Hills. Filming ended on 16 October 2018. Despite this, more filming took place in downtown San Fransisco in late October. Post-production of Sonic the Hedgehog movie began in New York in October.

Design
Screenwriter Patrick Casey revealed that for the film, Sonic would have a design that was still him and yet a "little more realistic". As promised, the production team created a new, more realistic version of Sonic, adding fur, new sneakers, separate eyes, and a more human-like physique. They used Ted, the living teddy bear from the Ted films, as a reference to insert a CG character into a real-world setting. In an interview with IGN, Tim Miller explained Sonic's redesign:

"That was always Stage 1 of adapting it to what the real world is and what a real animal would be like, it would be weird and it would feel like he was running around nude if he was some sort of otter-like thing. It was always, for us, fur, and we never considered anything different. It’s part of what integrates him into the real world and makes him a real creature. <...> I don’t think SEGA was entirely happy with the eye decision, but these sorts of things you go, ‘It’s going to look weird if we don’t do this.’ But everything is a discussion, and that’s kind of the goal, which is to only change what’s necessary and stay true to the rest of it.""

Release
Originally, Sonic the Hedgehog was scheduled for a 2018 release by Columbia Pictures. However, after the turnaround, Paramount Pictures rescheduled it to November 15, 2019. Eventually though, it was changed again. Currently, the film is set for release in the United States on 8 November 2019.

Marketing
At the Comic Con Experience in Brazil on 6 December 2018, test footage was screened for the public to see. Later, on 10 December 2018, a teaser poster featuring the redesigned Sonic was released. The design was likened to those from the 2019 video game film adaptation, Pokémon: Detective Pikachu. The reveal of Sonic's redesign caused many fans to reacted negatively on social media. Former members of Sonic Team, who created the original Sonic the Hedgehog games, likewise expressed surprise at the design.