A live action Sonic the Hedgehog movie is coming and James Marsden will star
OMG you guys – we’re getting a Sonic the Hedgehog movie! Just kidding, I’m completely neutral on this news, having only the basest of knowledge who Sonic is. My kids will kill me for that admission. Sonic is a character who premiered in a platform game of the early 90s that was Sega’s answer to the super popular Mario Kart. And it worked, Sonic hit the ground running (ha!) and never stopped. He still has games coming out 27 years later so good on him. And that kind of success deserves a movie, of course. So who better to plays a blue hedgehog stuck in hyperdrive? James Marsden of Westworld, of course. At least he’s in it, we don’t know for sure who he’s playing.
“Westworld’s” James Marsden will star in Paramount’s live-action/animation hybrid movie “Sonic the Hedgehog,” an adaptation of the classic video game, sources tell Variety.
The studio landed the film rights to the classic game in 2017 and tapped Jeff Fowler to direct.
Neal H. Moritz, who recently signed a first-look deal with Paramount, is producing under his Original Film banner. “Deadpool” director Tim Miller will serve as executive producer, along with Toby Ascher. Dmitri Johnson and Dan Jevons will co-produce.
Sega launched the Sonic game in 1991 and has sold more than 360 million copies to date, including both packaged and digital games on consoles, tablets, and mobile.
The game features a hedgehog named Sonic on a quest to defeat Doctor Robotnik, a scientist who has imprisoned animals in robots and stolen magical Chaos Emeralds.
There is nothing that says James is actually Sonic but since I have no idea what the story will be, let’s pretend he is. I really enjoy him on screen so even without Sonic knowledge, I’m all for this. He was great as Cyclops in X-Men and then hooked me forever as Prince Edward in Enchanted. And James is just the tip of the iceberg, there are more roles to cast. There’s the pink hedgehog named Amy Rose – she’s chipper, competitive and obsessed with Sonic. I want to offer up Amy Adams but that’s just an Enchanted holdover. I suggest Anna Kendrick. Then there’s Knuckles, a red, serious but gullible echidna. I’m kind of feeling Danny Pudi for this one. Tails is Sonic’s best friend who is also a fox who can use his tail to propel himself. It’s supposed to be a boy but I still want Mindy Kaling. And, of course, the bad guy, the mad scientist Dr. Eggman. I don’t have the first clue but I’m throwing Andre Braugher, Capt Holt from Brooklyn Nine-Nine, out there because that would make me positively giddy.
Since I’m throwing ideas into the universe anyway: Mario and Sonic put their differences aside in 2007 to start producing crossover games. So maybe I can get Adam Pally in a comical mustache in this thing. We will all have to wait, though. Sonic the Movie won’t be coming out until November 2019, which, unfortunately, I will have forgotten about it by then.
Photo credit: WENN Photos and Getty Images
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7pLHLnpmirJOdxm%2BvzqZmbm9pa4F5e8CYo6KulZSupMDIqKWYq5%2BjtqSr06GcmKCVmbSmtM6glqanpp6yoLXSmJqopZmjtKCtzZ2Wo5mdmsCgucCrqp2dnpTEqrjLmKqtmaJk