Paramount's Sonic the Hedgehog live-action/CGI movie is looking at a summer filming start date, with Junkie XL possibly handling the score. The project is based on Sega's popular Sonic video game characters (which have been around since 1991) and is being produced by Deadpool director Tim Miller, with Oscar-nominated animator/filmmaker Jeff Fowler serving at the helm.

Sony announced that it was adapting the Sonic the Hedgehog video games into a live-action/CGI film back in 2014, but the project only really started to move forward when Miller came aboard in 2016. Miller and Fowler spent years developing an animated movie based on Eric Powell's supernatural horror and crime mashup comic book series The Goon, prior to them reuniting to bring Sonic to the big screen instead. Miller has expressed his hope that the Goon animated film could still happen in recent years, but if it does it won't be anytime soon. Miller is gearing up to start shooting the currently-untitled Terminator 6 in a few months, with Fowler beginning production on Sonic the Hedgehog shortly thereafter.

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Omega Underground is reporting that Fowler is looking to start filming Sonic the Hedgehog in July in Atlanta, Georgia, in order to keep it on track to make its scheduled Fall 2019 release date. Blur Studio, which Miller is co-head of, will be working on the project, with Marza Animation Planet handling the animation. Blur previously worked on Fowler's Oscar-nominated Gopher Broke short and created the space sequences for James Cameron's Avatar, in addition to the opening credits for David Fincher's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and the cinematic trailers for several Batman: Arkham video games.

Junkie XL aka. Tom Holkenborg's involvement with Sonic the Hedgehog isn't a sure thing yet, but Omega Underground claims that there are "rumblings" that he will score the film. Holkenborg stepped down as Deadpool 2's composer after Miller left the project in 2016, as a gesture of respect to the filmmaker. In addition to the music for the original Deadpool movie, Holkenborg has the scores for Mad Max: Fury Road and Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice under his belt, and will provide music for the Tomb Raider film reboot and Alita Battle Angel adaptation later this year.

With the movie's production team quickly coming together, the casting process for Sonic the Hedgehog should be getting underway within the next few months. Since Sonic is a live-action/CGI hybrid, that presumably means the film will include multiple human characters (not just Dr. Robotnik, like in the games) in addition to Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and the rest of the gang. It stands to reason that Sonic will follow the lead of the now-filming Detective Pikachu movie and cast smaller names in its human roles, with an A-lister voicing its titular star. Who knows: Dwayne Johnson may add "voice an animated video game character" to his list of accomplishments yet.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article incorrectly said that Blur is overseeing the animation for the Sonic the Hedgehog film. While Blur will be involved with the movie's production, Sega's in-house company Marza is handling the animation.

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Source: Omega Underground

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