I've read that the first draft of Evolution's script was closer to the source material, and then rewrites by another party kicked in; resulting in the final script and what finally made it on-screen. But I'll take your word for it. We at least seem to be on the same page otherwise though, so that's good. Sony's meddling with the Spider-Man films is exactly on point on why I'm skeptical that if Van is able to make for Sony Studios a Sonic movie script that's faithful to the series, it will come out unscathed.
What I always wanted out of the film was if the live-action setting would be used as Station Square or something, and have NO live action humans. Instead, have Unleashed-styled characters in this world. That way, we wouldn't have to deal with the dumb photo-realistic human angle again, and the Sonic characters wouldn't feel too out of place. Use that there movie magic to make a forest setting look more like Green Hill, have the Egg Fleet against photo-realistic skies and clouds. I feel stuff like that would make the film more unique visually. But then again, it has been said that the film is aiming for a PG-13 rating and is going for a "Dark Knight" treatment. Uhm....Hype?
I don't know what I'd hate more, really. Live action or Unleashed's dicknose Hugh Neutron lookalikes.
Of course it all boils down to personal opinion but general consensus is that unlike all of it's predecessors Unleashed finally managed to blend Sonic & Co with humans together into one organic and lively environment. And I can't agree more. "Pixar humans" look natural alongside Sonic characters and Eggman specifically.
Oh hey there's some news about this thing. They just announced a bunch of the people working on the movie. It sounds like Van Robichaux and Evan Susser are no longer involved. Anyway: Director: Jeff Fowler Writers: Patrick Casey, Josh Miller Producer (from Original Film): Neal H. Moritz Producers (from Marza Animation Planet): Takeshi Ito, Mie Onishi Producers (from DJ2 Entertainment): Dmitri Johnson, Dan Jevons Executive producer: Tim Miller Also, thread title should really be changed cause it seems like Sony Pictures Animation has nothing to do with this and the movies aren't going to be released yearly. :v:
Well, I liked the Ratchet and Clank movie. It wasn't stupendous, but pretty cute and fun. If this Sony venture is anything like it, I'll go to the theatres and enjoy.
Just so people have an idea of what the people behind this have done before: The director, Jeff Fowler, comes from Blur Studio. They mostly do CG cinematics for games, and it doesn't seem like the people who worked on those cinematics are usually credited so it's kinda hard to see which ones he worked on. Outside of games, he is credited for directing and writing the 2004 short Gopher Broke, and for writing the 2006 short A Gentlemen's Duel. The most noteworthy thing the writers, Patrick Casey and Josh Miller, have done is Golan the Insatiable. They both wrote 9 of the show's 12 episodes, and Josh Miller is the creator of the show. Aside from that they wrote the Sad Slasher shorts, and a bunch of badly received movies including Transylmania, Shotgun Wedding, Dorm Daze, and Dorm Daze 2. As for the producers: Neal H. Moritz seems to produce every Original Film movie. Takeshi Ito was the producer of Night of the Werehog, and as they're both Marza producers have probably worked on the CG cutscenes and trailers of various Sega/Sonic games before. DJ2 Entertainment are pretty new and are currently producing a few other movie adaptations of video games, including Blacklight and Life is Strange. Tim Miller, while he's only executive producing, is probably the most noteworthy name here. Which is why he's the only one mentioned in the headline of the article announcing the movie's crew. He became pretty famous earlier this year for directing the Deadpool movie. Also he founded Blur Studio.
It gives me a bit of faith to see the amount of people involved who have pretty solid experience. I'm really happy to see the involvement of those two Marza producers as well. The fact that some people involved have experience with Sonic/Sega cutscenes and game cutscenes in general is great in my opinion. Also, Deadpool was a huge hit, which I personally really enjoyed too, so I trust Miller for what I have to go off of. Hopefully this movie is in good hands. I'm feeling a bit more positive about it than I was before, but I still wish they would go full CG as opposed to half live action.
The news is slightly encouraging. Literally all that I know about these people is what TimmiT has written above because I know bugger all about the film world, but it sounds good. And it's nice to hear that the project is still alive. This is the first we've heard in a long time.
Some video game stuff Jeff Fowler has directed at Blur, there's probably more stuff to that he worked on there but their site usually doesn't mention the creators in the description: Star Wars: The Old Republic – Knights of the Fallen Empire – “Sacrifice” Trailer (Co-directed with Dave Wilson) Atlas Reactor trailer (Also written by Jeff) Skylanders Trap Team commercial (Only the CG sequences) Don't know how involved he is with it, but he's also working on a CG movie adaptation of The Goon. He's involved enough to be doing interviews for the movie at least. Oh, and both Jeff Fowler and Tim Miller are credited for Shadow the Hedgehog's CG cutscenes. The game's credits don't mention their job positions, but still, they're listed. :v:/>
The new production cast very much feels like a group of unknowns. Kinda hard to get a good idea of how the film could go either way. I did hear about the writers' Golan the Insatiable show a while back, which intrigues me. Really wish they would ditch the live-action/CG angle though and just go full CG. That would greatly dial down my skepticism for how this film would turn out.
Don't want to take a dump on something before it's even shown, but a red flag already is how they're targeting PG-13. I know people mentioned this before, but what this tells me is that kids won't find enjoyment out of the movie and that instead of watering down the dialogue/ "mature" content to suit them they will go out of their way to make it appeal to said crowd. I noticed that the highest quality writing aimed for the younger audience isn't just aimed at them, it's aimed for all ages. For example, compare the dark humor in something like Billy and Mandy to something like Teen Titans GO. Same issue with Sonic Boom, it seems the writers aren't confident in their work so they market it towards a specific demographic. This will either be a plot heavy serious movie that likely doesn't fit in the Sonic universe in the first place or an edge fest to appeal to the no longer existent Linkin Park MySpace kids of 2005. You have to think, as "dark" as the stories Sonic games went, none of it came close. I'm sorry, but I fail to see one scenario where a Sonic story warrants a PG-13 rating. Who knows, this movie can be good, but I hope they changed their target audience. And I don't mean targeting to kids, and not to teens, but to all ages. Maybe I'm just salty and want to see the spirit of adventure from the Sonic OVAs again. They weren't perfect, but if I was a kid and it was a complete animated series it could have been my favorite show. I felt it had an awesome hybrid of West and Japanese, even if it was targeted specifically to the latter. I trust Marza's role, but everyone else? Eeeeeh... Keep in mind we can just barely trust current Sonic Team with making a coherent plot half the time, and even if they do people debate plot holes on the internet for eternity. For example, Sonic Battle can substitute Shadow the Hedgehog in the canon just as well. Shadow slowly regains his strength and memory, yet Shadow the Hedgehog comes out later. Is Shadow the Hedgehog non canon, or...? Now we're getting random people from Hollywood that will likely treat him like a generic IP that they got their mits on to increase their fame and portifolio. See Transformers, Avatar, DragonBall Evolution, etc. The only foreseeable redeeming factor this movie can have is if it's sponsored by Totinos. Then I will forgive it regardless of quality.
