User:TheJoebro64/drafts/SonicMovie

Sonic the Hedgehog is a 2020 adventure comedy film based on Sega's Sonic video game franchise. It was directed by Jeff Fowler (in his feature directorial debut) and written by Patrick Casey and Josh Miller. Sonic the Hedgehog stars Ben Schwartz as the voice of Sonic and Jim Carrey as Doctor Robotnik, and follows Sonic as he journeys to San Francisco with a small-town cop (James Marsden) so he can escape Robotnik and collect his missing rings. Tika Sumpter, Natasha Rothwell, Neal McDonough, and Adam Pally appear in supporting roles. The film was produced by Sega Sammy Group, Original Film, Marza Animation Planet, and Blur Studio, and distributed by Paramount Pictures, with Blur founder Tim Miller serving as executive producer.

Sega began working to adapt the Sonic franchise to film in 1993, leading to various unsuccessful efforts throughout the 1990s and 2000s. Sony Pictures acquired the Sonic film rights in 2013, and Blur alumni Fowler and Tim Miller were hired to develop the film in 2016. Fowler, Casey, and Josh Miller chose to make Sonic the Hedgehog an origin story for Sonic and Robotnik, with little of the series' characters and plot devices, to establish the Sonic world in film. After Sony put the project in turnaround, Paramount acquired it in 2017, and the majority of the cast had signed on by August 2018. Filming took place between July and October 2018 in Vancouver, Ladysmith, and elsewhere on Vancouver Island. While Sega was mostly uninvolved, Sonic series producer Takashi Iizuka provided input throughout production.

Sonic was redesigned for the film so he would be more realistic, with fur, new running shoes, two separate eyes, and a more humanlike physique. The initial redesign proved controversial among fans, though Paramount proceeded with it since it expected the general audience would not care. However, after the first trailer was released to near-unanimous criticism in April 2019, Paramount delayed Sonic the Hedgehog from an initial November 2019 release date to revise Sonic's design. Artist Tyson Hesse, who illustrated Sonic comics by Archie Comics and IDW Publishing and directed Sonic short films, led the redesign effort. The marketing campaign restarted with the reveal of Sonic's revised redesign in November 2019 and...

Sonic the Hedgehog premiered at the Paramount Theatre on January 25, 2020, and was theatrically released in the United States on February 14, 2020. Critics praised the performances, Sonic's design, and its faithfulness to the source material, but criticized its product placements and perceived lack of originality. The film set the record for the biggest opening weekend for a video game-based film in the United States and Canada. It grossed over $319 million worldwide, becoming the sixth-highest-grossing film of 2020, and the highest-grossing video game film adaptation of all time in the United States and Canada. A sequel, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, is scheduled for release on April 8, 2022.

Plot

Sonic, a blue hedgehog who can run at supersonic speeds, is chased by a tribe of echidnas. Sonic's guardian, Longclaw the Owl, gives him a bag of rings that open portals to other planets. She uses one to send him to Earth while she fends off the echidnas. Ten years later, Sonic enjoys a secret life near the town of Green Hills, Montana, but longs for friends. He idolizes the local sheriff, Tom Wachowski, and his veterinarian wife, Maddie, unaware the pair are planning to relocate to San Francisco soon, as Tom has been hired by the San Francisco Police Department.

One night, Sonic becomes upset over his loneliness when playing baseball by himself, and runs at supersonic speed. He inadvertently triggers an electromagnetic pulse that knocks out power across the Pacific Northwest. Roboticist and scientific genius Doctor Robotnik is enlisted by the United States Department of Defense to uncover the source of the outage. Robotnik discovers and tracks Sonic, who hides in the Wachowskis' shed. Tom discovers Sonic and shoots him with a tranquilizer, causing Sonic to drop his bag of rings through a portal to San Francisco. Tom reluctantly agrees to help Sonic before Robotnik arrives at the Wachowskis' house and the two flee. As the pair evade Robotnik, they slowly bond, and Tom learns about Sonic's desire for friends.

Robotnik discovers Sonic's quills contain limitless electricity and decides to capture Sonic to use him as fuel for his robots. While Sonic and Tom argue about his plans to move from Green Hills, Robotnik sends several robots after them, and an explosion knocks Sonic out. Tom brings him to Maddie, who treats him at her sister Rachel's house. Maddie agrees to help Sonic, and the group heads to the roof of the Transamerica Pyramid, where Sonic's bag of rings landed. Robotnik arrives in a hovercraft and attacks them, and Sonic uses a ring to send Tom and Maddie back to Green Hills. Robotnik uses the power of Sonic's quill to match his speed and chases Sonic across the world.

Sonic and Robotnik arrive in Green Hills, where Robotnik incapacitates Sonic. Tom intervenes, allowing Sonic to regain his strength and reclaim his lost energy; he uses a ring to send Robotnik to a planet of mushrooms. Tom and Maddie decide to stay in Green Hills and let Sonic live with them, while the US government agrees to erase all evidence of the events. On the mushroom planet, Robotnik—still in possession of Sonic's quill—vows to return by Christmas, while on Earth, Miles "Tails" Prower emerges from a ring portal in search of Sonic.

Cast

• Ben Schwartz as the voice of Sonic the Hedgehog:
  An anthropomorphic blue hedgehog who can run at supersonic speeds. Benjamin L. Valic voices a young Sonic.
• James Marsden as Tom Wachowski:
  The sheriff of Green Hills, Montana, who befriends Sonic.
• Tika Sumpter as Annie Wachowski:
  A veterinarian and Tom's wife.
• Natasha Rothwell as Rachel:
  Maddie's older sister who dislikes Tom.
• Adam Pally as Wade Whipple:
  A deputy sheriff in Green Hills and Tom's friend.
• Neal McDonough as Major Bennington:
  A United States Army major investigating Sonic.
• Jim Carrey as Doctor Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik:
  A mad scientist who seeks to exploit Sonic's powers.

Additional cast members include: Lee Majdoub as Agent Stone, Robotnik's assistant; Melody Nosipho Niemann as Jojo, Rachel's daughter; Tom Butler as Commander Walters, the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Frank C. Turner as Crazy Carl, a conspiracy theorist who seeks to prove Sonic's existence; Michael Hogan as the Air Force Chief of Staff; and Donna Jay Fulks as the voice of Longclaw, an anthropomorphic owl and Sonic's original caretaker. Garry Chalk, who voiced Grounder in the animated series Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog (1993), makes a cameo appearance as the Chief of Naval Operations, while Colleen O'Shaughnessey reprises her voice role as Miles "Tails" Prower from the Sonic games in the mid-credits scene.

Production

• https://www.comingsoon.net/movies/features/1131407-cs-interview-ben-schwartz-on-sonic-the-hedgehog-success-possible-future#/slide/1
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91ByGzJOkEE

Background

Sega of America consumer products director Michealene Risley began working to adapt Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog video game series to film in 1993, after licensing the animated series Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog (1993) and Sonic SatAM (1993–94) to DIC Entertainment. Risley could not recall if it was her, Sega of America CEO Tom Kalinske, or Sega COO Shinobu Toyoda who conceived the idea for a Sonic film, but they all worked together; Risley was eager to push for it due to her background in film production. Sega of Japan gave the group permission to move forward, and Risley negotiated with Hollywood producers, including Street Fighter (1994) producer Edward Pressman.

Kalinske was concerned that a Sonic film would damage the franchise brand, having experienced the failure of the Masters of the Universe (1987) adaptation during his time at Mattel. The critical and commercial failure of video game adaptations like Super Mario Bros. (1993) also made Kalinske wary, but Risley said that Sega was undeterred by Mario's failure and enthusiastic to produce the Sonic film. In August 1994, Sega struck a development deal with MGM and Trilogy Entertainment Group. MGM and Sega hired Richard Jefferies, an associate of Risley from her days at Marvel Comics, to write a film treatment. Sega asked Jefferies to feature the Sega Saturn and the in-development Sonic X-treme, as it wanted the film and game's releases to coincide.

Jefferies submitted his treatment, Sonic the Hedgehog: Wonders of the World, to Sega in May 1995. The treatment featured Sonic and series antagonist Doctor Robotnik escaping from Sonic X-treme into the real world. Robotnik schemed to use the Chaos Emeralds to conquer the world and Sonic teamed up with Josh, a 12-year-old boy, to stop him. Sonic was intended to appear as a computer-generated (CG) character; Jefferies said that while CG characters were uncommon at the time, his friends in the visual effects (VFX) industry "figured out a way to make it more practical." The treatment was well-received, though Risley recalled that all parties, particularly Sega of Japan and Sonic developer Sonic Team, were nervous. Toyoda suggested adding a more sinister villain since audiences would already be familiar with Sonic and Robotnik's rivalry, though Jefferies and Risley disagreed.

Before Jefferies began writing the script, MGM withdrew from the project. The exact reason is unknown; Jefferies theorized that Sega and MGM disagreed as to which company would receive a higher profit share, while Trilogy producer Pen Densham said it followed creative differences between Sega and Trilogy. Sega gave Jefferies permission to take the treatment to other studios. He presented it to DreamWorks Pictures since he was friends with Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, but DreamWorks was not willing to pay a high price for the Sonic intellectual property. As a result, Jefferies decided to drop Wonders of the World, reminiscing that he "figured that if it didn't work at DreamWorks, that was the best shot we got." Risley believes that Sega of Japan made the decision to cancel Wonders of the World afterward.

In 2000, Ben Hurst, a head writer of Sonic SatAM, contacted DIC about the possibility of continuing the series as an animated film. Hurst's idea was to work with Sega and Sonic Team to create a film that would complete the SatAM story and provide Sonic Team with new concepts for Sonic games. DIC connected Hurst to a Sega executive interested in the idea. Ken Penders, writer of Archie Comics' Sonic the Hedgehog comic book series, contacted Hurst, who offered to include him in the effort. Shortly after, Sega rejected Hurst's proposal; Hurst believed that Penders told Sega that he was trying to co-opt the franchise. Penders pitched his own Sonic film concept, Sonic Armaggeddon, in September 2003; he described as an origin story and reboot that concluded plot threads from SatAM and the comic. According to Penders, the film was canceled in 2007 due to "massive corporate upheaval" at Sega.

Development

Sony Pictures acquired the Sonic film rights from Sega in 2013. Sony and its Columbia Pictures division announced that they were teaming with Sega's Marza Animation Planet to produce a live-action animated Sonic film in June 2014, with Marza's Takeshi Ito and Mie Onishi producing alongside Neal H. Moritz under his Original Film banner. Upright Citizens Brigade alumni Evan Susser and Van Robichaux were hired to write the script, and were aiming for a PG-13 rating from the Motion Picture Association. Leaked emails from the 2014 Sony Pictures hack revealed that Sega was reluctant to license Sonic to Sony, concerned that Columbia would be acquired by "a competitor of theirs", but nonetheless "accept[ed] the current Sony/PlayStation situation."

In February 2016, Sega CEO Hajime Satomi stated the film was in the planning stages and scheduled for release in 2018. Blur Studio's Tim Miller and Jeff Fowler were hired in October 2016 to executive produce and direct, with Fowler making his feature directorial debut. Fowler described himself as having an "affinity for little comedy animated rodents", as he previously worked on short films such as Gopher Broke (2004). He pitched a story that cast Sonic as a child who was not allowed to run on his home planet and came to Earth for freedom, where he came into conflict with Robotnik.(GHZ) His experience at Blur taught him that preparation was important; Fowler noted that, as the film was centered around a CG character, "you really have to be very meticulous... Things like storyboarding, layout or previs; there's just a lot of work done on the front-end just to get everybody on the same page."

Sonic the Hedgehog was now envisioned as a family film, and alongside Fowler, Patrick Casey and Josh Miller were hired to write the script. Several drafts had already been written when Casey and Miller came aboard, but they made a separate pitch to get the job. In it, the Chaos Emeralds fell to Earth and landed in a jungle in South America, where they mutated animals (who became the Sonic characters). Sonic protected the community from humans until Robotnik defeated him and stole the emeralds, and Sonic followed Robotnik to the US to retrieve them. Sega enjoyed the pitch, but it could not be used since certain elements (such as Sonic being from Earth) went against the creative mandates Sega has in place for Sonic. Casey and Miller were hired to develop Fowler's pitch instead.(GHZ)

https://beforesandafters.com/2020/02/22/this-is-what-sonic-fans-seem-to-really-want-a-qa-with-sonic-director-jeff-fowler/

Iizuka involvement [1] [2] (translation)

Why they chose to develop the project [3][4]

Pitch video [5]

Writing

• https://www.theilluminerdi.com/2020/02/12/sonic-the-hedgehog-writers-1/
• https://comicbook.com/gaming/news/sonic-director-jeff-fowler-super-sonic-plans/
• https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/16-writing-the-sonic-movies-w-pat-casey/id1564623623?i=1000531309181
  • Interview stuff begins at 12:40
    • Parallel between Robotnik and Sonic—both isolated, want to connect with others but don't know how
    • There had already been multiple versions of the script when Casey and Miller came on
    • Casey and Miller came onto the project right after Fowler was hired to direct
    • They'd pitched a whole different take to get the job; their take was mostly based on the first game
    • 14:20–15:10 Their initial concept was that the Chaos Emeralds had fallen onto Earth (like a jungle somewhere in South America) and mutated animals (leading to the Sonic characters' origins). Sonic protected the community from humans until Robotnik defeated him and stole the emeralds. Sonic then followed Robotnik back to the US to retrieve them. Sort of like TMNT. Sega liked it but it went against the creative mandates it had for Sonic (e.g. Sonic has to come from another world, not Earth).
    • 15:10–16:35 Fowler's separate pitch: about Sonic as a kid, wasn't allowed to run. Sonic discovers a way to come to Earth and sneaks out to run before coming into conflict with Robotnik. Casey and Miller came aboard to develop this pitch, but they discovered it wasn't entirely feasible. They didn't want an entire act dedicated to Sonic being on another planet, they wanted him on Earth sooner so they wouldn't have to slow down and introduce all the human characters.
    • 16:35–18:05 Sonic being friends with a kid was a studio mandate. Casey and Miller argued that Sonic was the kid, so they teamed him with an adult played by an established movie star instead. They wanted to make it an action movie; teaming Sonic with a kid would've "sucked" per Casey. They described their take on Sonic as if Superman could not disguise himself as a human, and decided to make him like the Little Mermaid (an outside observer). They made Sonic lonely so the audience could feel for him in spite of him having fantastical powers.
    • 18:05–19:20 Sonic is usually not depicted as lonely due to the series' extensive cast of characters. Other Sonic characters were planned to appear early on, but Casey and Miller decided to wait before introducing them; they felt it would be more powerful if they came after showing Sonic as unique.
    • 21:20–22:45 Lee Majdoub and Frank C. Turner were local hires (they're from Vancouver). No one realized how good Stone and Robotnik's chemistry would be, and some of their interactions were added during filming.
    • 23:35–25:00 Danny DeVito was considered for Robotnik, but he was too old. They didn't have a particular actor in mind for the role, Casey was just picturing Robotnik as he is depicted in Sonic media. They knew he was going to be a human character. There was debate about whether Robotnik should be funny or not (Casey argued being funny but also a genuine threat were not mutually exclusive). The studio initially asked Casey and Miller to remove jokes, but when Carrey was hired they asked that they be re-added.
    • 25:50–27:15 The script was complete when casting began, though Robotnik's scenes were rewritten with input from Carrey. Carrey would look ahead to the next day of shooting before suggesting ideas for rewrites.
    • 27:15–29:00 On set, Sonic's lines were spoken as written, but since he was a CG character added in post, some of his lines and actions were altered for the final film. They tried to give the animators the leeway to add onto what was already in the script.
    • 29:55–31:30 Casey and Miller were able to make some last-minute script changes due to the lengthier post-production. Schwartz improvised a portion of his Sonic performance.
    • 31:50–33:24 The test animation was "sort of like a sequel to the movie", it was a standalone scene meant to demonstrate the movie to studios after leaving Sony (Casey can't get into the specifics of why they left Sony). It included Tom (modeled after one of the actors from Veep) and featured Sonic running past his radar gun as a game, ending with Sonic going so fast he sends Tom's car flying. It also included banter between Sonic and Tom.
    • 33:24–36:05 Zillo was a last-minute addition. The Olive Garden references were a joke and not product placement (the joke being it's what small-town residents would consider nice dining), and the final joke (the general's gift to the Wachowskis being pathetic) wasn't initially an Olive Garden gift card.
    • 36:06–38:40 A longer version of the introduction was cut to shorten the runtime. The echidnas were originally lizards; according to Casey, this was a request from Sony, which wanted them to create new characters Sony could own. Sony also wanted a secondary villain, but they cut the villain not to take focus away from Robotnik. The decision to change the lizards to echidnas was to subtly tease the eventual introduction of Knuckles. The team had to be conscientious of what Easter eggs they put in since they knew Sonic fans would notice them quickly.
    • 38:40–39:30 After the first trailer, Paramount realized that it needed to pay attention to Sonic fans. Tyson Hesse acted as the voice of the fans at the studio, and Paramount took everything he suggested seriously.
    • I'm at 41:20
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3krQhUBkUc
• https://discussingfilm.net/2020/04/12/sonic-the-hedgehog-screenwriters-josh-miller-and-patrick-casey-on-adapting-a-classic-video-game-exclusive-interview/
• https://www.creepykingdom.com/post/sonicjoshsmiller
• https://movie-robotnik-positivity.tumblr.com/post/648029152999555073/sonic-movie-writers-pat-casey-and-josh-miller

Casting

• https://collider.com/jim-carrey-sonic-the-hedgehog-interview/
• https://screenrant.com/sonic-hedgehog-movie-ben-schwartz-interview/

Filming

• https://screenrant.com/ben-schwartz-sonic-hedgehog-standing-up-falling-down-interview/
• https://www.ladysmithchronicle.com/news/paramount-budgets-7m-for-sonic-the-hedgehog-movie-shoot-in-hero-town-ladysmith/

Post-production

According to animator Max Schneider, Paramount pushed for a more realistic Sonic design.

Paramount knew that Sonic fans would object to the redesign, but expected that the general audience would not care since it felt the design complimented the real-world setting and characters. Schneider compared the scenario to Paramount's Transformers (2007) and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014) adaptations, which were successful even though fans disliked the character redesigns.

• https://www.gamesradar.com/sonic-movie-redesign-jeff-fowler-director-interview/
• https://www.fxguide.com/fxfeatured/sonics-very-fast-redesign/
• https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2020-02-14/sonic-the-hedgehog-got-a-digital-makeover-after-an-internet-backlash-will-it-work

Marketing

• https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/how-sonic-hedgehog-marketing-went-false-start-reboot-1279226/