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| ⚫ | {{Canceled}}'''''Sonic the Hedgehog: Wonders of the World'''''<ref name="Kotaku">{{cite web| url=http://www.kotaku.co.uk/2018/07/06/the-sonic-the-hedgehog-movie-that-never-got-made |title=The Sonic the Hedgehog Movie That Never Got Made |publisher=Kotaku |first=Luke |last=Owen |date=6 July 2018 |accessdate=6 July 2018 }}</ref> is the name of an unfinished film adaptation based off the ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' video game franchise. The film, intended to be a co-production of [[Wikipedia:Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer|MGM]], Trilogy Entertainment Group and Sega, began development in 1994, and a treatment for it was written by [[Wikipedia:Richard Jefferies (screenwriter)|Richard Jefferies]], but was canceled the following year before production could commence. |
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| ⚫ | '''''Sonic the Hedgehog: Wonders of the World'''''<ref name="Kotaku">{{cite web| url=http://www.kotaku.co.uk/2018/07/06/the-sonic-the-hedgehog-movie-that-never-got-made |title=The Sonic the Hedgehog Movie That Never Got Made |publisher=Kotaku |first=Luke |last=Owen |date=6 July 2018 |accessdate=6 July 2018 }}</ref> is the name of an unfinished film adaptation based off the ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' video game franchise. The film, intended to be a co-production of [[Wikipedia:Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer|MGM]], Trilogy Entertainment Group and Sega, began development in 1994, but was canceled the following year before production could commence. |
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==Plot== |
==Plot== |
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[[Category:1995]] |
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Revision as of 20:59, 7 July 2018
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As a result, the content of the article may have been canceled or replaced by another subject. |
Sonic the Hedgehog: Wonders of the World[1] is the name of an unfinished film adaptation based off the Sonic the Hedgehog video game franchise. The film, intended to be a co-production of MGM, Trilogy Entertainment Group and Sega, began development in 1994, and a treatment for it was written by Richard Jefferies, but was canceled the following year before production could commence.
Plot
The treatment centers around Josh, a 12-year old son of a divorced couple who brings Sonic to the real world by hooking up his Sega Saturn to a super-intelligent computer programmed by his father, called the XRI (eXtremely Radical Intelligence), and has to team up with him when Doctor Eggman and his minions inadvertently escape the computer and seek to take over the real world. The treatment has Eggman seek out the chaos emeralds, which are scattered all across the real world and turn most of the children in the neighborhood into his badniks.[1]
Development
Early stages
Sega first came up with the idea of a feature-length Sonic the Hedgehog film during production of the cartoon in 1993. Newly-appointed consumer products director Michealene Risley, who was instrumental in green-lighting the series, was assigned to negotiate with several Hollywood producers to find support for the project. “I was basically driving the Sonic movie," Risley recalled to Kotaku in 2018. "I don’t know who came up with the idea – whether it was Tom [Kalinske, Sega of America CEO] or Shinobu [Toyoda, Sega executive vice-president and COO] or me, or we talked about it as a group – but having come from the movie world, I was always pushing those things."[1] Tom Kalinske, however, was hesitant on the idea of a movie, recalling how 1987's Masters of the Universe damaged the namesake toy-line and how the critical and commercial failures of Super Mario Bros. and Street Fighter stained the reputation of their namesake video game franchises. Kalinske noted to Kotaku that "There is really is that fear that a bad movie could potentially hurt your brand. The Sonic brand was strong enough to probably withstand it, but there is that fear."[1] Despite Kalinske's concerns, Sega was highly enthusiastic about the project, according to Risley. "It all depends on the timing of the movie, the look of the movie, whether you go live action or animation. [The film failing] was never an issue for us."[1] After about a year of negotiations, Sega struck a development deal in August 1994 with MGM and Trilogy Entertainment Group, led by producer Pen Densham, with Densham serving as executive producer of the planned movie.[1]
After securing the deal, Sega and MGM tapped Richard Jefferies to help come up with a screenplay for the film. Jefferies had previously written the cult classic The Vagrant for MGM in 1992, and had worked with Risley during her time at Marvel Comics to help write a proposed film adaptation of the Silver Surfer character. According to Jefferies, Sega wanted the ill-fated Sonic X-treme game, which was in development for the then-unreleased Sega Saturn, to tie-in with the movie, adding that Sega was "trying to co-ordinate the two and make the two compatible."[1] Sonic would've also been portrayed through heavy use of computer-generated imagery.[1]
Jefferies' treatment was submitted to MGM in May 1995.[1] According to Jeffries, the draft received a positive reception among Sega and MGM executives, but Shinobu Toyoda sent a letter to Kalinske suggesting that Doctor Eggman be removed from the script, favoring a "strong/mean villain" to give the series a fresh idea.[1]
Cancellation
Before the project could be green-lit, MGM suddenly backed out of the development deal, and after an attempt to revive the film at DreamWorks went nowhere, the film was scrapped.[1] It is unclear why MGM chose to drop the film from their slate, though Pen Densham claimed the deal broke down due to creative differences between Sega and Trilogy, causing the latter to pull out and leave MGM with the bill.[1] Jeffries, however, blamed "Hollywood politics" for the film's demise, believing that the studios each wanted a higher share of the film's profits.[1] He also suggested that the character had trouble adapting to the decline of the 16-bit console market. "The focus groups weren’t responding to the evolution of the character," Jeffries remarked, "and the heyday of the character was behind them. Maybe they were hoping a movie could help reinvigorate that. But maybe it was a response to where Sonic was headed, and maybe MGM came to that conclusion themselves. I don’t know."[1] Jeffries speculated that the film's budget would've reached around $150 million, making it MGM's most expensive film to date, and suggested that the financial concerns were another reason for MGM abandoning the film.[1]