James Marsden to star in Sonic the Hedgehog movie
Variety reports that James Marsden of Westworld and the X-Men franchise will star in Paramount Pictures‘ Sonic the Hedgehog movie, an adaptation of the popular game series from SEGA. This isn’t the first time that Marsden has worked on live-action/animation hybrid however, having previously starred in the Easter-themed comedy Hop.
The film will take its cues from the games as well, focusing on Sonic’s attempts to battle the evil Doctor Robotnik who is on a quest to assemble the Chaos emeralds. This mark the first time that the Sonic games have been adapted for the big screen, but the character has previously appeared in both Wreck-It Ralph and this year’s Ready Player One.
Neal H. Moritz from Original Film Inc. (Fast and Furious series) will produce the adaptation which has Jeff Fowler (Blur Studio, Academy Award nominee for 2005 Best Animated Short Film Gopher Broke) set to direct and Deadpool‘s Tim Miller executive producing. Sonic the Hedgehog film will open in theaters on November 15, 2019
Sonic the Hedgehog was first seen in 1991 on the SEGA Genesis. Since then, the character was inducted into the “World Video Game Hall of Fame” in 2016 at The Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, New York. Most recently, the popular franchise has seen two new hit releases in 2017, Sonic Mania and Sonic Forces (PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, PC). Total sales of the series including both packaged and digital downloads count over 360 million units.