When the Sonic movie director Jeff Fowler announced the blue blur would receive a makeover, it admittedly left us wondering how much it was going to cost Paramount Pictures, financially. There was a tweet that went viral, suggesting the redesign would cost $35 million – increasing the film's total budget to $125 million, but apparently that's not the correct figure.
According to IndieWire, a source "close to production" estimated Sonic's new look cost Paramount less than $5 million. When the decision was originally made to rework the iconic character's design and delay the film, VFX work on the film was apparently still "far from" complete. The only Sonic VFX believed to have been finished at this point was the footage on display in the original trailer, released on 30th April this year.
The same source goes onto explain how the redesign was not as expensive as most believed and said any rumours about the VFX team suffering during this period were simply not true. The latest reworked trailer – which featured Sonic's redesign – dropped earlier this month on 12th November and was widely praised by fans and critics alike. The movie is due out in cinemas on Valentine's Day next year.
[source nintendowire.com]
Comments 29
If this is true then it seems like the old design was a ploy to increase production time and quality. And it worked. Bravo.
Doesn't Sonic have another nickname than "the blue blur"? You write it in every article.
Maybe they redesigned sonic etc. as a ploy. Could be they had troubling figuring out how to capture sonic on film because he's so fast. Maybe all time they gave up and told sonic to run at half speed as the solution.
Sonic himself doesn’t look bad, but I’m thinking this is going to be another bad video game movie. Not an interesting bad one like Super Mario Bros., but a mediocre one like that Assassin’s Creed movie a while back.
The trailer is absolutely joyless.
The best part about the movie will likely be Jim carrey and not sonic. Plus that all depends on how big a fan of him you are. As for videogame movies it's still going to blow. I can name like two that even remotely passed as decent. Mortal kombat and Silent Hill.
Hollywood please just stop! Enough with the videogame movies! I mean i know you're desprate for new original ideas but just stop!
No more reboots either! What's next a back to the future reboot with marty as a millennial?
This is why i haven't been to the movies in like 15 years!
I get why everyone is jumping on the "it was a marketing stunt" bandwagon and everything I have to say about it is: I would like to be just like you and think there aren't stupid movie execs with awful tastes.
I actually like Assassin's Creed movie. Wasn't great but still was good to me.
You know......I think they made sonic look bad before on purpose just to attract attention......then when they made him look better,everyone would praise them and they would get even more attention and money.....makes sense,right?
Sonic Epstein did not redesign himself
So is that purely production or are they factoring in marketing done to date?
Blatant marketing. This is how he was always going to look. Movie will likely suck either way but hats off to them. They've now got people excited about something they otherwise wouldn't be. Smart move.
... posters are dumb as a box of rocks, if you really believed the initial cost estimate. This was a reveal relatively early in the production. Some of you just hate the studio and idea of Sonic in a movie so damn much that you are gonna burn the rugs regardless.
I'm shocked it took 5 million to rerender and animate. How do video games do that and more with cut scenes and less budget?
Still think the first design put out was intentionally crap to get publicity. Well, that worked a treat!
What can I say... I like it!
@Zeldafan79 Uncharted will flop too because of totally wrong casting. A kid will play Drake, and Mark Wahlberg will be Sullivan.
The idea that the original design was a marketing stunt totally ignores all the marketing materials and licensed products (maybe just the Halloween costume) that went out. That's a very expensive stunt and basically a wide ranging conspiracy if partners were in the know, or an angering of them if they weren't. It's basically New Coke Redux.
The original design just reeked of movie executive meddling and those people can be dumb as rocks. I saw an article earlier today about how in the mid-90s an executive wanted Julia Roberts to play Harriet Tubman!
@tendonerd Because your eyes are adjusting to the expections you have from a movie or a video game.
Wonderful, gorgeous and glorious video games cinematics would be criticized as being "too cheap" in a movie. People won't connect to it because it's not what you expect in a movie.
Like the Diablo 4 cinematic for exemple.
Less than 5 millions? Huh
That's pocket change for such a big studio movie really
@Ventilator Agreed. They'll never top Nathan Fillion as Nate and Stephen Lang as Sully. The only change I would have made to the fan film would be to cast Anna Torv as Elena.
@Quarth it’s the same as calling Mega Man “the blue bomber”, it’s just their nickname.
I'm cynical enough to believe the whole thing was a marketing stunt...however, I'm also realistic to understand it was probably genuine Hollywood fail.
Never blame on malice what can be attributed to stupidity.
@JohnGrey The fan gilm of Uncharted nailed the casting of Drake and Sullivan.
The Norwegian fan film of "Uncharted - Ambushed" is also better than the upcoming movie.
@Bass_X0 @Quarth
sonics actually got quite a few other nicknames/titles
"Big Blue", "Blue Hedgehog", "Blue Wind", "Little Blue Savior", "Sir Sonic", "Knight of the Wind", "Speed Demon", "The Fastest Thing Alive", "The Legendary Blue Hedgehog", "World's Fastest Hedgehog", ect
They are just changing Sonic’s look. This not like trying to get rid of a mustache, that is more expensive and the results are not great.
@Ventilator
Yep. Hollywood doesn't understand these videogame adaptions. Nevermind being true to the source material. We're in this to make money! No matter how dumb the casting is.
I mean 5 mil is still a lot of money for what was an easily avoidable mistake. hopefully this puts whoever's dumb idea the original design was in their place. my bet is it was some idiot executive who needs to stick to looking over numbers and stay the hell in their office.
@Zeldafan79 Yep. Game to movie conversions is still a niche market today, and they are making the market even smaller by not aiming for even the fans.
It looks like it costs only that. Lol. 😂
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