The movie rights to the popular gaming franchise "Sonic the Hedgehog" was obtained by Paramount Pictures, who hopes to bring the blue speedster to the big screen.
The rights were previously owned by Sony, but the company put it into turnaround, placing the rights up for grabs. Neal H. Moritz, who recently signed a first look deal with Paramount, will be producing the project.
Many of the original team members who worked on the concept at Sony will still be involved, including "Deadpool" director Tim Miller, who will executive produce the film. Toby Ascher will also serve as executive producer, while Dan Jevons and Dmitri Johnson will be co-producers.
Miller's longtime collaborator Jeff Fowler will make the project his feature film directional debut. Fowler was the director of the 2005 Academy Award-nominated animated short film "Gopher Broke," which was produced by Miller.
The plan is to make a film that blends live-action shots with computer-generated imagery to bring Sonic and his friends to the real world, while maintaining their digital appearance. Whether this mixture will be better than a purely animated film, remains to be seen.
It will also be interesting how the production team will be able to create a compelling narrative in which the video game characters can be fleshed out. The Sonic video games were never about big stories or plot twists, as they focused on fast-action gameplay and entertaining visuals.
"Sonic the Hedgehog" is one of the most recognizable icons in the video game industry, as titles from the franchise go way back to 1991. To date, the franchise has sold more than 360 million copies of its numerous games across different gaming platforms.
Sonic, along with his buddy Tails, first appeared as a cameo appearance in the film "Wreck-It Ralph." Now, the beloved hedgehog will be racing his way to his first proper film.
