CONFIRMED: Sony to Produce Sonic Movie Series, Sega-Sammy Owned Marza Involved
Multiple sources have reported at 6PM ET that Sony will be releasing a Sonic movie. No release date is known.
Neal H. Moritz, most recently of 22 Jump Street, will be producer. Toby Ascher will be executive producer.
The production will be a hybrid of live action and CG. Sega-Sammy owned Marza Animation Planet will have a key role in the latter. A report from Deadline.com appears to indicate this could be a series of films, and not just one:
The plan is to release one movie per year. Pic will focus on Sonic’s rivalry with characters from the video game, including his evil nemesis Dr. Eggman. Sonic uses his stature as world’s fastest hedgehog to move at supersonic speed to protect his friends from their enemies.
Additional reporting from The Hollywood Reporter indicates Upright Citizens Brigade alums Evan Susser and Van Robichaux are writing the initial screenplay.
In December, we first reported on the registration of several Sonic movie domains by Sony Pictures, though they didn’t go anywhere at the time. Today’s release indicates those domains were indeed registered ahead of time for that purpose.
We will work feverishly to get clarification on whether this plan calls for a single movie or series. If you can help clarify, please send a news tip. Be sure to turn to TSSZ for the latest developments on this new, uncharted territory in the Sonic franchise.
This post was originally written by the author for TSSZ News.
Holy shit.
Exactly what I said.
Awesome!
One movie per year?? Are you kidding? That’s a terrible idea! That’s just asking for the franchise to get stale and rushed.
ugh.
this is gonna be bad. I was skeptical but hearing the “one movie per year” is just death
UGH WHY MUST SONIC CONSTANTLY BE SEGA’S PERSONAL SEX SLAVE?!?!?!
If Sony is releasing it, does that mean it will be exclusive to Sony’s TV’s and projectors?
Sony has had their television shows aired on other channels.
Remember, Sony doesn’t just make PlayStation.
I don’t know, a movie per year? Doesn’t it usually take two or three years to make a really good film?
I’m not trying to ruin anyone’s hype. I’m just a bit skeptical.
Depends. If they begin production on the first film for two years before release and begin production on the sequel one year before the first is released they can release the films yearly.
Live-action? That’s no good.
I bet you despise Disney Channel then.
Doesn’t everybody?
^
Awesome, but one movie a year? Could rank more money since it’s Sonic.
…I don’t feel that great about this.
The whole hybrid idea (movies like The Smurfs) has left a reeeeeally horrible taste in my mouth. :/
There are ways to do it right, and many ways to do it very, VERY wrong…
#CGonlySEGANohumancharactercrossoverliveactioncrapthatwehate
I only have one thing to say: GIMMIE, GIMMIE, GIMMIE!!!
I for one, like this idea.
The Smurfs, the originial at least, was a good movie in my books. It was one of the few movies where you took a cartoon character into the real world that actually worked well.
Smurfs 2, not so much, but I’ll pin that blame on the lackluster plot and constant pop-culture references more than anything else.
So, I am actually liking the idea of a cross-over style movie, as long as we don’t get a Chris *Gary-Stu* Thorndyke like character in the movie.
I for one think any human characters in the movie(s) should at least not have a major part (so, no Chris Thorndyke clones). The only humans I think would be acceptable would be characters from the games like Maria, Gerald, the GUN Commander, and of course, Dr. Eggman himself, who I do think could work as a live actor (maybe pull a Darth Vader and have one person act him and another person (like Mike Pollock or Jim Cummings) voice him.)
Just my opinion.
imagine a sonic movie with Michael Bay? with explosions, militaries,Sonic with over-realistic and gritty textures, and Megan Fox as Sally Acorn xDDDDDDDD i would kill myself ._.
NO! STOP! STOOOOP! AUGH! THE IMAGES YOU HAVE PUT IN MY HEAD! ITS KILLING ME!!!!!!!!
Please, never, EVER say something like that again…
it gets better!!! Nicolas Cage as Shadow the hedgehog and Willow Smith as Sticks the badger xDDDDDDDDDDDDDD
+Plot sounds traditional
+Marza involved
-one movie a year
-hybrid real life/fantasy
Well I guess that all equals out.
Pretty much.
I don’t have a problem with it being half live action, my problem is that it means that some human characters will probably have more importance and screen time than they should (ala Transformers), but hope I’m wrong, also I really hope they go for the tone of the Adventure games for this, those games already have that “movie feeling”, unlike Sonic Colors for example.
Also inb4, Mike Pollock for Dr. Eggman!!!
Agreed with this.
Oh god human characters….I’m getting Chris Thorndyke flashbacks already
Not sure if positively excited, or crapping my pants due to the insane amounts of fear…
A movie a year. That’s what they said with the Layton series, and only one movie has come of it.
Sonic has official made his comeback. Holy shit.
When is the sequel to the Mario movie coming out?
In the year 3666 and they froze the actors, so they will still return!!!!1
I like your name 🙂
I want to be super excited but whenever I envisioned a Sonic movie I always imagined a CG animated or hand-drawn one. There’s a very, very good reason why live-action never crossed my mind.
I highly doubt they’d be able to capture the scope of the imaginative world of Sonic well enough with live action. It could be good, sure, but could they maybe reconsider how they do this?
Live action Eggman incoming.
Holy crap you’re probably right O.O
“We told you so” -TSSZ
😛
Thanks for saying the thing I haven’t had time to say yet. -T
Totally way past cool news of a Sonic Movie now officially confirmed. The Sonic the Hedgehog franchise needs to come back in big way. And what better way to try to revive the sonic the hedgehog franchise than with a movie! Hopefully for 2014 the Sonic Boom TV Series and Sonic Boom Video Game will be able to save the Sonic franchise, or will this become another disappointing year like it was in 2013 with the Sonic Lost World game?
Shit son Sonic VS Shadow: The Movie – Wrath of The Ultimate Life Form Part 1 incoming
Get hype 😀
I hope so…I HOPE SO!!!!!!
Hmm… that would be nice.
But I don’t think that Shadow should be in the first movie. The first movie should establish the setting and so they will probably focus most of the time on that. Shadow’s story is quite complex. It’s more suitable for a second movie when we are already familiar with the setting and how the world works, so we can move on from the “origin” kind of story.
Yawn, I strongly believe that “Sonic VS Blaze: Battle of Chaos and Sol” would be an even cooler film than that. We’ve seen Sonic VS Shadow a million times, Let’s actually have a fight we haven’t seen much of for once.
Yeah, and send Blaze back for good!
…What, not everyone likes her. 😛
Yeah well she’s still got quite a big number people who do like her, and Blaze would probably kick Sonic’s ass right back to South Island.
WTF!?!?!? OMG!!! I’m speachless:o but in a good way.
Ooh, sounds interesting.
Yes! My dreams of seeing Sonic run up the empire state building are going to come true! Most people are upset about the mix with live action, but I think it is quite interesting. I have always dreamed of Sonic coming to the real world, and this could be a taste of it. Welcome back Sonic! 😀
Do you find my statement amusing? 😛
If ninja turtles can do I bit a sonic movie will be awesome. I hope they do a story style from the Sonic adventure series.
A movie based on a VIDEO GAME.
And it is a CGI/LIVE-ACTION HYBRID.
I repeat.
VIDEO GAME-BASED MOVIE!
CGI/LIVE-ACTION HYBRID!
Just– is nobody’s red alarm going off here?
Not to mention there’s gonna be a new one on annual basis.
Fuck.
I wanna have hope…I DO!!!!
But that just kills it for me…
Yep. Not sounding like good news to me, either. Remember who writes most of these comments, though.
Do note, that anyone who ISN’T a huge fan of Sonic doesn’t want to see a full CG movie. This coming from my own mother. 😛
And yet, Ratchet & Clank, and Sly Cooper are getting the full CG treatment, and they’re getting released in theaters to the general public.
Your own mother apparently represents every single non-fan in existence. I’d be surprised if she were interested at all, regardless of whether it were full cgi or half.
Lol Smurf the Hedgehog is on the way everybody!!! xDDDDDD
Let the tears flow!!!
hahahah oh god if this is anything like the smurfs I…will….SCREAM!
Boom Sonic or real Sonic? Either way, as most of you know or suspect: the live-action element has me extremely worried. Can’t wait to see who the random human tie-in will be. Adult Chris Thorndyke played by Greg Kinnear? lawl
Really?
I could be wrong, but this doesn’t sound good. Maybe it does on paper but… well, almost every movie I’ve ever seen based on a game or cartoon has not turned out well: Mario, Dragonball Evolution, Avatar: The Last Airbender, and Transformers being popular examples. All being CGI/Live Action films.
Of course, that is my opinion. I’m sure there are those who enjoyed those films.
I dunno, man. Super Mario Bros., depending on how you look at it, could be considered a “so bad it’s good” movie.
And I liked the first Transformers movie fine enough. The second one was pure shite. And the third one? Ehhhh, well, it was better than the second one, at least. Not that THAT’S hard to accomplish.
The Last Airbender can just go fuck itself. I can’t think of a SINGLE person I met who actually LIKED that piece of horseshit, so your statement can’t possibly apply to this film.
Well, another stupid thing by Hollywood!!…
Please, sonic Team, make us dream again with real SONIC videogame adventures!!…
NOPE!
I’m giving boom a chance even with recent news but this movie…f that, hollywood is poison to games/anime.
On annual basis?
Well… I am rather afraid what that it can mean one thing nobody probably pointed out so far. Many movies are shot on annual basis when one of the important factors is age of the actors. Especially if those are children. Harry Potter movies couldn’t have afforded a long time between the entries, because Harry would age faster than he was supposed to. That doesn’t apply to children only, but young actors too.
Just like someone else pointed in the comments, hopefully the main cast will not be made of humans with Sonic characters playing secondary role. The worst thing that could happen would be if the main character was a child and Sonic and his friends would there act just like pets of this kid, his mentors or … just generally those kind of people who teach the main child protagonist the moral clichés, like – you are stronger with your friends, good beats evil because we are together – and so on. That would be such a downer. Especially since this kind of movie would hardly have a sequel. “Kid learns through his imaginary friends the lessons of friendship and so he is gonna be successful in his future life.” There is no need to continue this fairy tale – he lived happily ever after. They must create some mythos around Sonic. They must create his world. If they go the way through the human actors being so important that they must keep shooting the movies on such a fast pace… it’s not a good sign.
On the other side, they could be wanting to release the movies on annual basis since they can, because the main characters would be Sonic and friends, and since they are CG’d and their real actors are voice actors the studio don’t need to deal with actors schedules.
My point was that they probably will be doing that because they must, not because they can. Because if the age of the actors was not an issue or anything like that, why would they not want to take time to do the movie right and not rush it?
Well, CGI movies can be probably made faster, because you don’t need to reshoot scenes, you don’t need to have appropriate weather, you don’t need have large quantities of people on set to cooperate… But this movie will be only half CGI. So those issues remain.
Age of the actors is really only relevant if you’re using younger ones (RED FLAG).
Why would they not want to take the time to do the movie right? Because this is most likely a twisted cash-in and NOT a labor of love – thus the annual releases. This is Sony and Sega we’re talking about, don’t forget
Yeah, RED FLAGS all the way…
Jesus Christ I just realized we might get live action Eggman if Sony wants to pull a Bay
I don’t know how I’m gonna take Sonic movies without glorious Mike Pollock as Robuttnik
Unless Pollock dares to play the character, this time for realz!!
I’ve been a fan of literally every voice they’ve ever given his character, and though I love Mike’s consistency and think his voice fits the current look of the character, they could easily do a more villainous live-action Robotnik that fits whatever look they’re going for and it’d probably be fine. They just need to find someone with a deliciously evil voice (and there’s plenty to choose from)
Be afraid, be very afraid…
SEGA’s just taking the Ninja Turtles marketing model and applying it to Sonic…
“Let’s make a CGI series and put sports-tape on them. After that, let’s give them a CGI/Live-Action Hybrid movie.”
Also, what was the first thing that Sonic said in the Sonic Boom gameplay video from last week? “Cowabunga.”
Case closed.
I see some people kicking two movies I liked: Airbender and Evolution. no. just no.
Anyways, this looks promising: seems like a good list of writers, and I hope that they’re taking some people and turning them into actors.
“I see some people kicking two movies I liked: Airbender…”
……………
*ahhh-he-he-he-hem* *COUGH! HACK! COUGH!* *ah-hem*
Now, I’m all for having an opinion.
But SERIOUSLY?
Nope. No opinions. Ever again.
No, just no?
Well, “Dragonball: Evolution” and “Avatar: The Last Airbender” just weren’t to my liking. That’s just a statement based on my own preferences. Am I saying that anyone that enjoyed them (such as yourself) are terrible people or stupid? Not at all. I certainly have no problem with that.
Those particular films were just not positively received, and didn’t have the same feel and spirit of their original counterparts to me. I just found no enjoyment from them. But that’s just me. Its just from my experience, that games and cartoons being turned into movie of this type haven’t done well. Yet. This film could prove my statement entirely wrong.
Sera porque Disney compro los derechos para emitir a Sonic videojuego. Te odio Disney >:()
I prefer the original character designs from ‘Sonic Next Gen’ and ‘Sonic Heroes’.