It’s not clear when the movie industry will reopen like it once was, with cast and crew unworried about social distancing. Maybe we’ll get more movies where human thespians interact with CGI hedgehogs — like, say, a sequel to this year’s Adam Sandler-approved Sonic the Hedgehog, which opened and made a mint just before the nation’s theaters closed due to a rampaging pandemic. That, as per The Hollywood Reporter, is what may be happening.
THR reports that Paramount is in the early stages of development for the follow-up, which managed to make around $150 million in the U.S. alone, and in only about a month in release. (The studio claims it’s since sold around 2 million units in our current PVOD world.) There are no details about what the story would be, whether human stars James Marsden and Jim Carrey and voice star Ben Schwartz would return. But director Jeff Fowler, who managed to make the rare well-reviewed video game movie, will at least be back.
The first Sonic, based on the classic Sega Genesis side-scroller, ran into some trouble in post-production, facing a barrage of mockery over the design of its titular spikey mammal. The release was bumped a handful of months — right to the cusp of a viral outbreak, as it turned out — but at least it mostly worked out in the end. Sort of.
(Via THR)