One ofJeff Fowlers first gigs in the industry was creating content for Segas Shadow The Hedgehog videogame.
The first two films are among highest grossing video game adaptations ever and the latest movie istracking well.
Itll be in a holiday season box-office battle withMufasa:The Lion King.
Jeff Fowler at the ‘Sonic The Hedgehog 3’ UK PremiereJeff Spicer/Getty Images for Paramount Picture
Keanu Reeveshas joined the voice cast ofthe upcomingParamountmovie as a new adversary,Shadow the Hedgehog.
DEADLINE:Theres a growing cast of characters from the games.
What was the approach with the third movie?
Were honoring what fans really loved about that game, but we never just do direct translations.
In this film Sonic is settling into this leadership role.
Knuckles is a big personality and kind of thinks he should be calling the shots.
DEADLINE:The first two films were hits.
But the journey wasnt always smooth.
There was pretty fierce fan pushback and then acharacter redesign.
Three films in, how do you reflect upon the story so far?
And its something that I sort of champion.
We now have this amazing relationship with our fans.
They obviously voiced some opinions, and those opinions were heard and addressed.
Its now just become part of this great relationship with them.
Its amazing to me that were here on a third film, and weve made a TV series.
We have always found a way through.
DEADLINE:How did the strikes impact production?
JF:We had overlap with the end of ourKnucklesshoot.
We already had our draft completed for the film so we actually werent affected by the writers strike.
When that actors strike began, we had a whole lot of visual effects work to do onKnuckles.
Fortunately, eventually that all resolved itself.
By late November we were able to get going on the movie.
DEADLINE:Theres a great full-circle moment when it comes to Shadow the Hedgehog.
I hear you two go back a long way?
JF:This is something thats very personal to me.
Its almost impossible to wrap my head around.
Whats most exciting about bringing Shadow into our movies is hes a complex character.
He has a backstory that is very different from Sonics.
Sonic very much got a happy ending, and he found friendship and family.
Shadow had that for a time, but then it was all taken for him.
DEADLINE:What did you want from Keanu Reeves when it came to Shadow?
Sonic is saying 100 words a minute while Shadow might say five words in an hour.
Hes a much more closed book, more mysterious, brooding.
Its this kind of yin and yang with Shadow and Sonic.
Theres a really great opportunity, narratively, to have an almost bizarro version of that Sonic origin story.
Keanu just brings so much to it.
Keanu was absolutely perfect in that regard.
DEADLINE:Jim Carrey is back and youre working him hard, hes playing two characters this time?
JF:He works himself that hard.
I learned that on the first film.
He knows people are showing up to see him and he wants to deliver.
All we know about Robotnik is hes an orphan.
Its also the most important in terms of getting the audience to buy in on the concept.
JF:Were so proud of how simple and sweet that first film was.
Its about the needs and the sensibilities of that group of fans who saw the first film.
JF:Weve ended every one of these films with a tease of new characters.
Marvel has done this for many, many years, its not something we invented.
This third film is no different.
I cant wait to pop my head into the end of the movie, just to see the response.
There are so many great characters.
Its an embarrassment of riches.
Its fun to watch the speculation.
Therere still some great names on that list.
DEADLINE:Weve had the Knuckles series.
With a growing cast of characters on screen, do you see spin-off potential?
Its a real challenge though.
You introduce new characters, and the audience fall in love with them.
You fall in love writing for them.
Then the next movie comes along and theres another new character.
Youre juggling more and more and so by proportion, each characters role gets a little smaller.
DEADLINE:The forecasts are good, there are some other big movies launching over the holidays.WickedandMoana 2fared well.
There has been some good news of late when it comes to moviegoing.
JF:This last Thanksgiving was just such an incredible display of support and love for theaters.
I root for all movies.
I love the theatrical experience.
