Image: Filippo Monteforte / AFP
The actor confirmed that he would play longtime Sonic nemesis Doctor Robotnik, and that he was involved in a live-action capacity, according to a recent report.
Jim Carrey has joined James Marsden of “Westworld” and “X-Men” in an adaptation of speedy SEGA video game franchise “Sonic the Hedgehog.”
Debuting in 1991 as a fast-paced response to Nintendo’s “Super Mario Bros.,” the franchise has expanded to over 50 entries in the nearly three decades since.
As well as Marsden, Tika Sumpter of the “Ride Along” franchise, “Gossip Girl,” and “Southside With You” has already been cast, but Carrey is the first actor associated with a specific role.
A month after reports of his involvement first surfaced, the “Mask” and “Bruce Almighty” star confirmed his participation at a Television Critics Association event, per Deadline.
“It will be live-action,” he went on to say, adding a level of intrigue to the production process as Dr. Ivo ‘Eggman’ Robotnik is usually shown as having an ovoid body type.
Envisioned as a synthesis of live-action and CGI, the film is to center around Sonic and his friends Tails the fox and Knuckles the echidna.
As usual, they will be involved in foiling the diabolical plans of the overly authoritarian Robotnik, also known as Dr. Eggman.
The November 2019 movie will be directed by Jeff Fowler, who was involved on the animation side on “Where the Wild Things Are,” and 2003’s “Rockfish,” an award-winning short from “Deadpool” director Tim Miller. Fowler also co-directed the 2005 Oscar-nominated animated short “Gopher Broke.”
Following his breakthrough in sketch comedy series “In Living Color,” Jim Carrey became a comedy film fixture through mid-90s hits “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective,” a CGI-spectacular “The Mask”, as well as “Dumb and Dumber” and “Batman Forever.”
“The Truman Show,” a 1998 film about living as the unwitting subject of a popular reality TV series, cast Carrey in a more serious role, as did 1999 biopic “Man on the Moon” and 2004 head-trip “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.”
More recently, he was almost unrecognizable in an uncredited role in 2016 wilderness survival story “The Bad Batch.”
He reunites with “Eternal Sunshine” director Michel Gondry for Showtime’s September 2018 comedy drama “Kidding,” about a beloved children’s TV presenter whose family life is falling apart. AB
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