One of the most popular video game characters is finally coming to the big screen, and celebrated comedic actor Jim Carrey is along for the ride.
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"Sonic the Hedgehog", a new action-adventure comedy based on the Japanese multinational entertainment company Sega video game of the same name, features the protagonist Sonic, a CGI anthropomorphic blue hedgehog who can run at supersonic speeds and curl into a ball as a way to attack enemies and defend himself.
The plot has Sonic hiding out on the outskirts of the small town of Green Hills, Montana, where he befriends local sheriff Tom Wachowski (James Marsden) who aids him in his quest to stop evil mad scientist Dr. Robotnik, who covets Sonic's abilities and is played by Carrey.
A film adaptation of Sonic has been in development since as early as 1993, yet after similar ventures of adapting video game such as "Super Mario Bros." and "Street Fighter" did not manage to perform well commercially, the idea was shelved. in 2017 Paramount Pictures were the latest Hollywood studio to acquire film rights and the project was finally set in motion.
Already released in the Us and select territories last weekend, "Sonic the Hedgehog" has so far proved its power with $70 million over the four-day holiday weekend in North America, the biggest domestic opening weekend by a video game-based film. Additionally, outside of the US the film earned $43 million dollars for a total of $113 million, which marks for Carrey's second-biggest box office opening of all time, after "Bruce Almighty" in 2003.
"It's just absolutely no-holds-barred fun", said Carrey in an interview promoting the film about his villainous character, "These are the things I put out in the universe, I'm always looking for different experiences and also to reconnect with an audience that just wants something absurd. And to have this crazy character, to be playing this crazy character is a joy.
"But at the same time, I get to ground him in something real and I think that's what works about the movie is that Sonic is a manifestation of absolute innocence and playful electric joyful childlike fun. And I always say that Robotnik has a Sonic-shaped hole in his heart, like a lot of really important so-called intelligent people walking around. And so, he wants to own that, Robotnik needs to own that, but he can never do it, he can never actually own it. So, it's a very simple story, like "High Noon" or something, it's very simple. But it means something, and it actually touches you at certain times in the movie when it hits on themes of friendship and loneliness. And yet I get to play a megalomaniac, which is a wonderful reason to get out of bed".
Q: How do you relate to such an evil animated character?
"You have to find yourself in every character, no matter what you are playing, if you are a murderer, you have to find the murderer in you. You have to find every character in you and part of him that wants to be noticed, wants to be seen, wants to be admired. I can understand self-loathing because I have been through moments of it where you reach outside yourself to try to create things or whatever, as avatars of yourself in order to impress people. But now it's just more about creating.
"Things have just bubbled up over the edges in every direction and I found myself this year not only doing the part in 'Sonic,' which I loved. And I have been lucky enough to become a contributor to New York Magazine and Playboy Magazine with the cartoons and I have a huge following for that alone. And then there's the book I'm publishing, which took eight years of painstaking work, and its prose, it's really poetry and it's something beautiful to me. So, there's very little limitation right now as to what I can do. But I understand megalomania, I understand wanting to be thought of as the smartest person in the room, that I understand. And also, they are all parts of myself, I think I see Sonic as myself too".
Q: You mention different art forms. What about music?
"I don't think there's anything but music in what I do. A great book is music, its prose is music. There are lyrics and words and sounds that are put together that are not only incredibly meaningful, but they are beautiful to the ear. Shakespeare is music, poetry is gorgeous. It's the universe, that's where the verse is, and verse is music. So, there's nothing that isn't music and there's nothing that wasn't formed by music. I think the whole damned thing was created by vibration. And so, I have, I am a big fan of cymatics and solfeggio spiritual tones and all those wonderful tones that created the sacred geologies".
Q: Does having all these interests ever become exhausting?
"Yeah, but I think about the presence, sometimes it gets very difficult depending on the work, but I enjoy being in the moment and being in the present and being with other creatives".
