I couldn’t even utter a word, let alone type one, after I saw this past week’s released trailer for Paramount’s upcoming live-action “Sonic the Hedgehog” movie. I mean, it was bad, real bad. Add in an over-acting Jim Carrey, basically spoofing his old self, as the villain et voila you have a potential recipe for disaster at the box-office.
A major development has occurred since then. The film’s director, Jeff Fowler, has announced [via Twitter] that he will be re-designing Sonic’s look from scratch. The film is supposed to be released in November. That gives Fowler and Paramount 7 months to finish this thing up. Good luck.
The intense outrage over the trailer was nasty. Paramount and Sega are clearly scrambling to save the film at this point with their idea for a total redesign. Unheard of. Especially for a main character and the glowing fact that a trailer, not to mention promotional material, has already been released.
“Thank you for the support. And the criticism,” Fowler wrote in a tweet. “The message is loud and clear… you aren’t happy with the design & you want changes. It’s going to happen. Everyone at Paramount & Sega are fully committed to making this character the BEST he can be…”
The film’s budget was in and around $90 million. I would think a lot of it went into the creation of Sonic via CGI. The budget will now definitely reach the $100M … what a clusterfuck.
Daniel Kaluuya took a sabbatical from acting back in 2022. There have been many theories as to why, but the important thing is he’s finally back, starring in this fall’s Chris Rock-directed “Misty Green.”