James Marsden has signed on to star in Paramount’s upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog movie. The classic Sega game will be adapted into a live-action/animated hybrid with Jeff Fowler (Gopher Broke) directing. Original Films is producing the movie, along with Deadpool director Tim Miller and Toby Ascher.
Details of the plot have yet to be released for the film, which is being scripted by Patrick Casey (Golan the Insatiable) and Josh Miller (12 Deadly Days). The film is based on the Sonic the Hedgehog video game franchise, which was first released in 1991. The game centers on Sonic, a blue hedgehog able to run at supersonic speeds, and his quest to defeat Doctor Robotnik, a scientist who has imprisoned animals in robots and stolen magical Chaos Emeralds.
No word yet on who Mardsen will be playing, although I’d bet he’ll be playing the hapless human who helps Sonic with his quest. Marsden played a similar role in 2011’s Hop, as the human counterpart to the Easter bunny. Though he’s best known for his dramatic work in the X-Men films and Westworld, Mardsen is a gifted comic actor. His performance as Prince Edward in Enchanted is seriously delightful.
In addition to a Sonic the Hedgehog movie, studios are trying to bring other classic 90’s video games to the big screen. Nintendo and Illumination Entertainment (Despicable Me, Minions) have teamed up to produce a new animated Super Mario film. Even the Pokémon franchise is getting its own live-action feature, Detective Pikachu. Ryan Reynolds will star as the voice of Pikachu, with Justice Smith, Kathryn Newton, Ken Watanabe and Bill Nighy in live-action roles. The film will be directed by directed by Rob Letterman (Goosebumps) and who co-wrote the script with Nicole Perlman (Guardians of the Galaxy).
As a genre, video game movies have been (how do I put this) mostly garbage. Most video game films are critically panned and commercially unsuccessful, with intermittent hits like the Resident Evil or Tomb Raider franchises. We’ll see if Sonic the Hedgehog can break the curse when it comes out in November, 2019.
(via Variety, image: Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
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