Seemingly far removed from the worlds of gore and sex which made the R-Rated Deadpool movie such a success, director Tim Miller has reportedly signed on to help produce a Sonic the Hedgehog movie for Sony Pictures.
So far there is no release date, and the film seems to still be in its early pre-production stages, but the plan is to “make a hybrid CG-animated/live-action family film”, which sounds like the kind of thing that could be a cinematic disaster, but a merchandising dream.
However, my blatant cynicism aside, there is hope for this film, in the knowledge that Miller is actually the founder of Blur Studio, the company which created some of the animated cutscenes seen in Shadow the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog 2006. Whilst critics and fans alike had both good and bad things about the games, the cutscenes are at least widely acknowledged as being one of the better features of each respective game. Miller, then, at least has an inside knowledge into both game production and the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise as a whole, which puts him far ahead of most directors who sign on to create adaptations of popular franchises.
Along with Miller, Blur Studio collaborator Jeff Fowler has also reportedly signed up to work on the project, on which Fowler would make his directorial debut on a high budget feature film. Tim Miller appears to be excited about the opportunity to work with Fowler on the movie, stating:
“Jeff is an incredible director with strong story instincts. The world of Sonic presents the perfect opportunity for him to leverage his experience in animation to bring new dimension to this iconic character.”
Patrick Casey and John Miller (Golan the Insatiable) are also reported to be writing the film’s screenplay, but as of yet, there is no news about quite what the movie’s narrative will revolve around. You can, however, safely assume that it will probably involve some hedgehogs and lots of running around.
It’s hard to judge these kind of things too harshly without seeing some kind of trailer or preview footage, so as much as I might want to grimace at the idea of a hybrid live-action/CGI Sonic movie, I’ll remain quietly optimistic about it for now. The Sonic franchise is, after all, a pretty zany thing in of itself, so perhaps this will translate well to an unconventional hybrid film adaptation.
Whilst most gaming fans groan whenever they hear the phrase “video game movie adaptation”, things are, to my eyes at least, steadily improving in terms of film quality and polish when it comes to making big-screen adaptations of gaming franchises. The upcoming Assassin’s Creed movie, for example, looks visually promising, and the promised Detective Pikachu movie might at least be adorable enough to help us all forget about the world’s troubles. Just don’t think about Pixels, and everything will be okay.
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