More Monster Mashing: 'Pacific Rim' Sequel Begins Production, Warner Bros. Dates 'Rampage' Movie

For a while, we've heard about an adaptation of the arcade classic Rampage...

I mean, how could one go wrong? It's a game where you get to play as a cartoony giant monster, and destroy the living daylights out of cities! The original game hit arcades in 1986, and got a couple sequels, the most notable being Rampage: World Tour. The film is set to star The Rock, so that makes it cooler. The Rock squaring off against three giant monsters! Or will The Rock be one of the monsters? In the games, the monsters are humans that have morphed into towering behemoths.

Let's just hope they get this one right, because if they take it too seriously and make it a generic gritty monster movie, I won't be a happy camper. Rampage is meant to be over-the-top fun and bonkers destruction, and I think it would honestly work better as an all-animated film, but live-action/HRCG it is (I'm going use that from now on: Hyper-real CG). Brad Peyton, director of The Rock's recent actioner hit San Andreas, is at the helm of this. The same writer, Carlton Cruse, returns as well. I actually happened to see San Andreas, I thought it was just "there". Good, competent action, some thrills, but little else. Hopefully Rampage is not just like that.

Anyways, it's finally seemingly going forward. Turns out, Rampage will be that picture WB will be releasing through New Line on April 20, 2018. That's actually over a month after Wreck-It Ralph 2 opens, and of course Ralph's game world was partially inspired by Rampage. I think that's kind of a cool coincidence, no?

Just as cool is the fact that this will open about two months after Pacific Rim: Maelstrom, which is also now an official thing. Cameras are rolling, production has begun! For a little while, we didn't have many monster movies like this, just a few inbetween... But now we're seeing more and more of them, maybe because of the big success of Gareth Edwards' Godzilla? Pacific Rim - a $190 million-costing giant - was a domestic crawler after a low opening weekend gross, but the overseas markets saved it, and a few other things too. More than anything, this sequel is being made for the country that flocked to see the original: China. If Warcraft gets a sequel, that's also going to be for China.

Anyways, Godzilla had godawful legs after a massive opening bow back in 2014 (I, for one, loved the film), thankfully it made just enough here and elsewhere to ensure a sequel, a crossover with Legendary's own King Kong, and a possible shared universe of giant monsters. Kaiju have returned! Now let's get an animated kaiju movie a-firin', huh? When will Paramount get around to making Trey Parker and Matt Stone's Giant Monsters Attack Japan? What about Original Force's geriatric kaiju comedy OldZilla?

What say you?

Fast-Tracked: 'Sonic The Hedgehog' Movie Gets Director and a New Team

Quite a transition... Deadpool to Sonic the Hedgehog...

Who is transitioning? Tim Miller, the director of Deadpool, the edgy turbo shot in the superhero movie coffee that shook the box office and impressed critics. After having "creative differences" with Ryan Reynolds, Mr. Miller sadly left Deadpool 2, shocking the world and leaving folk skeptical. While we wait to hear what he'll be directing next, we now know what's on his mind...

Revealed by THR today, Miller is set to executive produce Sega and Sony's long-in-development Sonic the Hedgehog live-action/CG hybrid movie. The film also has a director, an old partner of Miller's: Jeff Fowler. Fowler worked for Miller's Blur Studio, who have done VFX for several blockbusters, including Deadpool. This will be the man's directorial debut. Fast & Furious man Neal Moritz is still set to produce the film.

It appears that a few changes have occurred. The project's writers are Patrick Casey and Josh Miller, they're the creators of Fox's adult-oriented animated series Golan the Insatiable. Originally, Evan Susser and Van Robichaux were going to write the film, but it seems like they were out the door a while ago. Apparently, according to hearsay, they were aiming for something that was more of a PG-13 flick.

Miller had this say about Fowler tackling the project...

"Jeff is an incredible director with strong story instincts. The world of Sonic presents the perfect opportunity for him to leverage his experience in animation to bring new dimension to this iconic character."

I'm very curious to see what they bring to this given that Miller's own Deadpool and his Goon are adaptations of very family-unfriendly comics. If Sony and Sega want this Sonic feature to be more PG, then I can imagine Miller and Fowler bringing some edge to it, alongside the Golan creators. The franchise has never really gone above the E10+ rating (before anyone says something, no, I'm not familiar with the Sonic Archie comics - apparently some of those tried to go for a teen audience at one point?), so I can imagine - at best - a very edgy PG. I just wonder what kind of tone it will take on. I doubt it'll commit the mistakes Sonic 06 made, because I honestly wouldn't want a Sonic film that takes itself way too seriously. It's possible that it could be irreverent, and mock the ins and outs of the series, but how far can you stretch thtat?

Personally, I would like to see the movie be similar to Sonic's first true 3D game, 1998's Sonic Adventure. While it's probably not chic to consider that game good in this day and age (I'm not blinded by nostalgia here, I still have a blast playing it), I actually dig that game's sometimes overcrowded story and slick style. To me it was the right mix: There was speedy action, the adventure was big in scope, the variety in the levels was great, and I liked all the backstory stuff concerning Chaos. The only big problem with that game was the actual dialogue, which was mostly boring and flat, save for Eggman's parts. If they can take that game's style and combine with dialogue that's actually good and snazzy, then I'll be content!

Or they could perhaps make it similar to the early 90s cartoon adaptation known as Sonic "SatAM", which plunged the characters into a darker sci-fi story that worked... A complete 180 from the other early 90s Sonic cartoon, for sure! (Which, I think, you can enjoy on its own terms.)

All of that aside, I think Sonic the Hedgehog would make for a fun animated movie adaptation. Plus I'd love to see the gameplay translated into dizzying scenes, you know? Him running through loops and twists and whatnot. Time and time again, studios blow it up when it comes to films based on video games. I was initially so excited at the idea of a Ratchet & Clank movie, but we ended up getting a botched matinee that came and went. See, I think animation is the perfect route for video game movies, given that some games - to me - just wouldn't work in live-action or with hyper-real CGI. Sonic the Hedgehog, I think, is one of them, alongside the likes of Mario and many others. I sincerely hope the CG side of this hybrid won't be like Jungle Book, it's Sonic the Hedgehog for Pete's sake!

Now that the film has a solid crew behind it and a director, I'm guessing this will open in 2019 at the earliest. Years back, they thought that 2018 was the target, but I think they'll end up getting it out a year later. Who knows, maybe they can bang it out. After all, Miller banged out Deadpool and made the early 2016 slot, with pretty top-notch results. I think a Sonic the Hedgehog animated movie has a lot of potential, I like the series a great deal, so I'll continue to keep my eye on this one.


What say you?