Sega has announced that it has teamed up with Paramount Pictures to co-produce a Sonic the Hedgehog feature film, due for release on November 15 2019.

The film will include “Both live-action and CG animation elements,” and its producer will be Neal H Moritz (ex-Fast and Furious); its director Jeff Fowler (Blur Studio); and its executive producer Tim Miller – director of Deadpool and owner of Blur Studio. The Sonic film will get a theatrical release in the US, followed by a worldwide theatrical release.

Sega Chairman and CEO Haruki Satomi said: “I am very honoured that our companies, Sega and MARZA, have this incredible opportunity to partner with Paramount Pictures for this production, which will bring Sonic to the big screen for the first time. Since he was first introduced to the world 26 years ago, Sonic has continued to grow in popularity as part of our core strategy to focus on videogames. In addition to videogames, this provides SEGA with a fantastic opportunity to share Sonic with everyone, and we can’t wait to reveal more to eager audiences in the future.” MARZA is an animation production house owned by Sega.

Sonic the Hedgehog is one of the games industry’s most iconic characters – cumulatively, according to Sega, Sonic games have notched over 360 million unit sales over the decades. Given that Sonic himself is a blue hedgehog, with various animal friends, we can be thankful that the Sonic film will mostly be constructed using CG animation. Let’s hope it is good enough to go some way towards rehabilitating the deservedly terrible reputation of films derived from videogame IPs.