Sega’s Sonic the Hedgehog movie is coming soon.
Do you remember Sonic the Hedgehog? The speedster was one of SEGA’s biggest video game franchises when the 16-big video game system hit the market, and he’s enjoyed a long legacy of video games ever since then.
However, the blue speedster has come under hard times in recent years, with last year’s title Sonic Boom being one of the worst-selling games in franchise history.
So how can Sonic be saved? SEGA hopes that a live-action hybrid Sonic The Hedgehog movie will do the trick, and they have teamed up with Sony Pictures to do just that.
The news was announced by SEGA CEO Hajime Satomi while speaking with The Worldfolio (via Engadget):
Sega Sammy Group is currently planning with Sony Pictures to create a live-action and animation hybrid ‘Sonic the Hedgehog’ movie scheduled for release in 2018. Like with this CG animation production, we would like to expand our business into other entertainment areas beyond what we are currently involved.
CEO of Sega is interested in creating an animated live-action hybrid movie which will be similar to the Garfield: The Movie or the Alvin and the Chipmunks franchise.
This is not the first time Sonic has been taken out of his video game element. At the height of the video game character’s popularity in the ’90s, Sonic the Hedgehog was given his own animated series. There was also an original animated project that was released overseas as Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie.