Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (film)

Last updated

Sonic the Hedgehog 3
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 film poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Jeff Fowler
Screenplay by
Story by
  • Pat Casey
  • Josh Miller
Based on Sonic the Hedgehog
by Sega [a]
Produced by
Starring
Cinematography Brandon Trost
Edited byAl LeVine
Music by Tom Holkenborg
Production
companies
Distributed byParamount Pictures
Release dates
  • December 16, 2024 (2024-12-16)(TCL Chinese Theatre)
  • December 20, 2024 (2024-12-20)(United States)
Running time
110 minutes [3]
Countries
  • United States
  • Japan
LanguageEnglish

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 [b] is a 2024 action-adventure comedy film based on the video game series published by Sega. The sequel to Sonic the Hedgehog (2020) and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022), it was directed by Jeff Fowler from a screenplay by Pat Casey, Josh Miller, and John Whittington, based on a story by Casey and Miller. Jim Carrey, Ben Schwartz, Colleen O'Shaughnessey, Natasha Rothwell, Shemar Moore, James Marsden, Tika Sumpter, and Idris Elba reprise their roles, with Krysten Ritter and Keanu Reeves joining the cast. In the film, Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles ally with Dr. Robotnik to defeat a new enemy, Shadow the Hedgehog.

Contents

Plans for a third Sonic the Hedgehog film were announced in February 2022 during ViacomCBS's investor event before the release of second film. Due to the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike, filming for animated characters began in July 2023 in Surrey, England, while filming with actors began in November of that year in London, with production concluding by March 2024. The film draws inspiration from the video games Sonic Adventure 2 (2001) and Shadow the Hedgehog (2005). Reeves was cast due to the parallels between his performance in the John Wick films and Fowler's vision for Shadow. Many elements of Shadow's characterization in the games were adapted for the screen in a "fan faithful" rendition.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 premiered at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles on December 16, 2024, and is scheduled to be theatrically released by Paramount Pictures in the United States on December 20.

Premise

At the request of the military organization G.U.N., Sonic, Tails and Knuckles are tasked with stopping a powerful and mysterious new adversary, Shadow the Hedgehog. Unable to defeat him by themselves, the trio forms an unlikely alliance with Dr. Robotnik in hopes of stopping Shadow and protecting the planet. However, the matter is complicated when Robotnik is reunited with his long-lost grandfather, Gerald Robotnik, who has his own sinister plans. [5]

Cast

Voice cast

Live-action cast

Additionally, Sofia Pernas, Cristo Fernández, James Wolk, and Jorma Taccone were cast in undisclosed roles. [6]

Production

Development

In March 2020, James Marsden confirmed that he had signed on for multiple sequels to Sonic the Hedgehog (2020). [20] In February 2022, Sega Sammy Group and Paramount Pictures had been developing a third film after Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022). It was formally announced during ViacomCBS's investor event. [21] Jeff Fowler returned as director, and Neal H. Moritz, Toby Ascher, Toru Nakahara, and Hitoshi Okuno returned as producers. [22] Haruki Satomi, Shuji Utsumi, Yukio Sugino, Fowler, Tommy Gormley, and Tim Miller served as executive producers. [23] Pat Casey, Josh Miller, and John Whittington returned to write the screenplay, with the former two also being credited for the story. [23] Paul Greenberg and Oren Uziel received off-screen additional literary material credit. [24] In addition, a spin-off television series for Paramount+, Knuckles , was developed simultaneously with the film. [21]

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 draws inspiration from the video games Sonic Adventure 2 (2001) and Shadow the Hedgehog (2005). [25] [26] Among the elements from Sonic Adventure 2 incorporated were the fairy-like creatures the Chao. In this film they are part of a Chao Gardens-themed restaurant in Tokyo, where Team Sonic and Shadow face off for the first time. Fowler felt utilizing the characters in a popular attraction was "very believable", and could be used as a plot device, such as when Team Sonic needed to have a moment to regroup and have a conversation about what was going on. [11]

In April 2022, Jim Carrey—who portrays Dr. Robotnik in the films—announced that he was considering retiring from acting. [27] With his possible retirement, Moritz and Ascher confirmed that his role as Robotnik would not be recast in any sequels if he followed through with his retirement plans. However, they remained hopeful that they could develop scripts good enough for him to continue the role. [28] Carrey conceded, requiring that "the angels bring some sort of script that's written in gold ink that says to me that it's going to be really important for people to see" if he were to continue. [29]

Casting and filming

Jim Carrey (pictured in 2020) said he would only reprise his role if he was delivered a "golden script"; director Jeff Fowler had Sonic 3's sent to him printed in 24-carat ink. Jim Carrey 2020 cropped.jpg
Jim Carrey (pictured in 2020) said he would only reprise his role if he was delivered a "golden script"; director Jeff Fowler had Sonic 3's sent to him printed in 24-carat ink.

Second-unit filming began in late July 2023 for animated characters only without physical actors (due to the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike) in Farnham, Surrey, England. [31] Principal photography was originally scheduled to begin on August 31, 2023, in London, England, [32] [33] but was delayed to September. [34] Production with physical actors started on November 29, 2023, and was announced with a teaser image of Shadow the Hedgehog's stand-in statue used in filming. [35] Brandon Trost returns as cinematographer. [14] Luke Freeborn was production designer. [14]

In February 2024, Carrey was confirmed to be reprising his role. [22] Elaborating on his decision to sign on, he stated that "I came back to this universe because, first of all, I get to play a genius, which is a bit of a stretch. And, you know, it's just... I bought a lot of stuff and I need the money, frankly". [36] Fowler made note of Carrey's comments about a script of gold, printing it out in 24-carat ink and delivering it to his doorstep. [30] [37] Fowler said that asking Carrey to play the dual role of Ivo's grandfather Gerald was "such a big ask", and meant Carrey had to spend three hours in a makeup chair being physically prepared to play Gerald each time. [11] To write the role for Carrey, Fowler said they initially focused on parallels between his two characters, "not just with bald heads and giant mustaches, but also in their behavior and their attitude"; they then decided they needed to "create the right sort of conflict" for the film. [11] Carrey also helped design the prosthetics he wore. [37] While Carrey performed each role, actor Brendan Murphy doubled for the other character. [13] During each performance, Carrey informed Murphy how he would be doing the other, a system the former said was "very technically difficult", especially considering that he was interacting with a pre-recorded voice track of the opposite character during his performances. [13]

Additionally, Marsden, Ben Schwartz, Tika Sumpter, Colleen O'Shaughnessey, Idris Elba, Lee Majdoub, and Tom Butler were confirmed to reprise their roles from the previous films. [6] Krysten Ritter, Alyla Browne, James Wolk, Sofia Pernas, Cristo Fernández, and Jorma Taccone were cast in undisclosed roles; [6] Taccone was previously hired as an episode director for the Knuckles series. [38] On February 16, Browne's role was revealed as Maria. [17] Schwartz began recording for the film by the week after. [39] As opposed to acting with a placeholder tennis ball in scenes with Shadow, Browne shot scenes with a Shadow puppet, with his puppeteers ad-libbing certain lines into the film. [19] Marsden said that filming had been completed by March 14, 2024, [40] while Fowler officially revealed that the film had wrapped production on March 29. [41]

Prior to his casting as the voice of Shadow, Keanu Reeves was a popular fancast for the role after the character's cameo in the preceding film. Keanu Reeves (crop and levels) (cropped).jpg
Prior to his casting as the voice of Shadow, Keanu Reeves was a popular fancast for the role after the character's cameo in the preceding film.

On April 15, 2024, it was reported that Keanu Reeves had joined the cast as the voice of Shadow. [7] Fowler said there was an "obvious corollary" between Reeves's performance in the John Wick series and the "vibe we're trying to channel" for Shadow, and thus these films served as a "perfect, albeit unconventional, 'audition'" for the character. [44] Fowler said that Reeves "would just give us so many different versions of line readings and just want to keep going" during voice recording and said he put more into his performance than "just sort of showing up and reading the script into a microphone", both understanding their vision for the film and realizing his interpretation of Shadow; [10] Reeves was prepared with questions to give himself insight about what the team was trying to achieve. [11] Animation supervisor Clem Yip said Reeves's low-key, serious vocal performance informed their visual work. [19]

Fowler felt that the world did not become "edgy" with Shadow's character, but the tone the character brought was "a little bit more exciting, a little bit more dangerous". [11] He acknowledged the elements of firearms and Shadow's motorcycle in his eponymous 2005 video game, and said that they were "very respectful about what fans expect to see and what they love about the character", and that he and his team were "very aware of the times and the right way to handle that kind of imagery in a family film." [11] Fowler previously worked as an animator on Shadow's eponymous 2005 game, and felt honored to adapt the character for the screen. [45]

Post-production

As a cost-cutting measure, the producers had an in-house animation team at Paramount work on both Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and the Knuckles series. [46] Clem Yip serves as animation supervisor, [19] while Al LeVine serves as film editor. [14] Animation was produced by six studios: Rising Sun Pictures, Rodeo FX, Industrial Light & Magic, Fin, Marza Animation Planet and an in-house team at Paramount. [19] Fowler's team took a "speedboat vendor" strategy, dividing the animation work across these six studios. [19]

According to Ascher, the team "made an investment in the Sonic assets and [...] built them in-house," then distributed them to the vendors, which he noted was comparatively different from previous installments where "usually the vendor controls the assets that they rig". Owning the assets also allowed for their in-house team to work exclusively on Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Knuckles, and helped the production "keep costs down and move faster." [46] Fowler said that "if you have multiple vendors, you have multiple teams you have to bring up to speed, so initially there's an extra level of work that has to be done. But once you do that, because the work is spread out, you do have that opportunity to go back and say, 'Maybe we push this a little bit more or polish that performance a little bit more'". [19] Fowler emphasized the need for visual continuity between the projects and cited good communication as being key to achieving this. [46]

Music

Tom Holkenborg, who composed the score for the first two Sonic films, returned to score Sonic the Hedgehog 3 [47] and had finished work by July 2024. [48] In December 2023, Crush 40 vocalist Johnny Gioeli said there had been talks of including "Live & Learn", the theme song from Sonic Adventure 2. [49] In February 2024, Gioeli confirmed "Live & Learn" would be included in the film. [50] Jelly Roll released a single for the film, titled "Run It", on November 21, 2024. [51] The film also features the song "Neon" from Japanese rock band One Ok Rock, who previously contributed to the soundtrack for the 2022 game Sonic Frontiers. [52]

Marketing

In April 2024 at CinemaCon, Paramount showcased first-look footage of the film, which featured a heavier Robotnik bemoaning his current state before his assistant Agent Stone informs that "they found him", and Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles fighting a silent Shadow. [53] In July, a popcorn bucket and action figures produced by Jakks Pacific were leaked online. [54] On August 25, the first official tease of Keanu Reeves's involvement as Shadow was posted to the film's TikTok account, which referenced the actor's mention in the first film, captioned "foreSHADOWing". [55] Beginning at that time, images of the film's characters were projected on buildings in locations globally in promotion of the film's first trailer, [56] which released on August 27 alongside a teaser poster. [57] Reeves's role was considered the most prominent feature in the trailer. [8] [58] [59] IGN observed that "Keanu Reeves is very much in Keanu Reeves mode here", [5] and Vulture likened the actor's moody and vengeful portrayal of Shadow to a John Wick performance. [60] Both Ash Parrish of The Verge and Paul Tassi of Forbes agreed that Reeves's voice was satisfactory, and Parrish also noted Maria's reveal, anticipating how the film would adapt her fate. [18] [8]

On the opening weekend of Paramount's Transformers One , posters of Shadow were raffled to the first 300 attendees at select theaters, with Reeves signing a limited quantity of them. [61] In commemoration of Halloween, a 10-second clip from the film of Shadow saying "boo" was posted on social media. [62] On November 4, a promotional still image of Shadow was released by Fandango. [63] On November 18, a new poster was released, featuring the main team, the Robotniks, and Shadow, who looms above the cast at the top and also rides his Dark Rider motorcycle at the bottom. [64] Several press outlets were also sent a Sega Genesis cartridge containing promotional posters and voice lines from the characters, as well as a minigame through which the date for the film's second trailer could be unlocked by inputting a cheat code from the game Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (1994); ↑ ↑ ↓ ↓ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑. [65] The trailer was released on November 25. Commentary focused on Shadow's use of a gun in one scene, considering the prominence of firearms in Shadow's self-titled game and Sega's subsequent disownment, [66] [67] [68] as well as Tails being mistaken for the Pokémon character Pikachu. [66] [69] The phrases "HE HAS A GUN" and "HE PISSED ON THE MOON" began trending on social media following the trailer's release, with the latter being a reference to the popular web series SnapCube's Real-Time Fandub . [68]

By October, the Jakks Pacific toy merchandise was released. [70] The shoe company Reebok produced a tie-in line of sneakers in promotion for the film, [71] and McDonald's will sell Happy Meal toys of the film's characters. [72] AMC Theaters produced a novelty popcorn bucket of Sonic's head and a collectible combo of a cup, drink topper, and a mask. [73] On December 11, 2024, Paramount also released several posters parodying Christmas films such as National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation , Home Alone , the 2000 adaptation of How the Grinch Stole Christmas, the 2009 adaptation of A Christmas Carol (both which also starred Carrey), Elf , Love Actually , Scrooged , A Christmas Story , Four Christmases , Die Hard , and The Nightmare Before Christmas . [74] The original "Ugly Sonic" design from the first film that received backlash was featured as a sweater design that would be given away as a prize along with a chance to win a ticket to see the Los Angeles premiere of the movie for Paramount's "12 Hours of Sonic" giveaway promotion. [75] [76] A stop-motion short titled A Very Sonic Christmas was released on December 11, 2024, with Schwartz, Elba, O'Shaughnessey, and Reeves reprising their roles and Wade Whipple actor Adam Pally voicing Santa. [77]

In preparation for the movie, Sonic Team developed the video game Shadow Generations as a soft tie-in, with Sonic Team head Takashi Iizuka stating that he wanted to "spotlight Shadow as a character" alongside the movie. [78] The title was released in October 2024, and additional downloadable content based on the film was released on December 12. The "Sonic the Hedgehog 3 Movie Pack" DLC includes an additional level set in Tokyo, as it appears in the film; during the level, Shadow's appearance changes to resemble his movie counterpart, with Reeves reprising his voice role for the downloadable content. [79] [80] Reeves and Fowler gave an interview on CBS Mornings to promote the film. [81]

Release

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 premiered at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles, California, on December 16, 2024, [82] and is scheduled to be released theatrically in the United States by Paramount Pictures on December 20, 2024, taking over the original release date of The Smurfs Movie (2025). [83] Paramount will hold a fan event on December 19 for early screenings at theaters in premium formats. [84] It will release in the United Kingdom a day later on December 21. [85] Tickets went on sale on November 25, 2024. [86] [84]

Box office projections

In the United States and Canada, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is scheduled to be released alongside Mufasa: The Lion King , and is projected to gross around $55 million in its opening weekend. [87]

Future

In September 2024, producer Toby Ascher stated intent for additional installments in the franchise following the release of Sonic the Hedgehog 3. [88] Elba and Reeves have expressed interest in a spin-off starring their characters, musing it could be titled Knuckles and Shadow. [89]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Sonic the Hedgehog was developed by Sonic Team, published by Sega, directed and programmed by Yuji Naka, designed by Hirokazu Yasuhara, and illustrated by Naoto Ohshima. [1] [2]
  2. ↑ Known in Japan as Sonic x Shadow TOKYO MISSION (Japanese: ソニック × シャドウ TOKYO MISSION, Hepburn: Sonikku x Shadō: Tokyo Mission) [4]

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