‘Sonic 4’ Casts Voice of Amy Rose

Yet another big-name star is joining the ever-expanding cast of Sonic the Hedgehog.

If you watched all the way through the end credits of Sonic the Hedgehog 3—and seriously, what could be more important than finishing the movie?—you got a sneak peek at Amy Rose, a popular character from the Sonic games, who will likely join the cast in a future film.

Kristen Bell is likely to voice a character in Sonic the Hedgehog 4. She’ll be working alongside Ben Schwartz, who voices Sonic, Idris Elba as Knuckles, and Keanu Reeves as Shadow. Colleen O’Shaughnessey is the only original voice actor returning, as she continues to voice Tails.

Sources at The Hollywood Reporter say that most of the main actors from the Sonic movies – including Jim Carrey as Dr. Robotnik, and James Marsden and Tika Sumpter as Tom and Maddie – are likely to return for a fourth film.

The series has evolved a lot since it started. Many fans remember how the initial design of Sonic in the first movie was drastically different – and quite scary – compared to the video game version. The first trailer reveal caused a huge negative reaction.

After the initial negative reaction, Paramount delayed the movie’s release and completely reworked the character’s design to be more faithful to the original video game. This investment of time and money paid off – the Sonic movies have earned $1.19 billion globally, and a fourth film starring Ben Schwartz as Sonic and Colleen O’Shaughnessey as Amy is now in development.

Kristen Bell is well-known for her voice work in animation. She famously plays Princess Anna in Disney’s Frozen movies, and a third Frozen film is currently being made.

Movies That Were Abandoned During Production and Never Finished

All-Star Weekend

Jamie Foxx’s first time directing was a comedy about two truck drivers, played by Foxx and Jeremy Piven, who unexpectedly win tickets to the NBA All-Star Game. The movie follows their chaotic road trip to get there. Filmed in late 2016, it was never released, and Foxx was frequently asked about it in interviews. Last year, he revealed the project was cancelled due to a problematic portrayal of a Mexican character by Robert Downey Jr., similar to his role in Tropic Thunder. Foxx implied this casting was the primary reason the film will never see the light of day.

Arrive Alive

Following the success of Scrooged, the writers Mitch Glazer and Michael O’Donoghue created a script called Arrive Alive. It was a detective story about a murder investigation involving a boxer, with the detective falling in love with an exotic dancer. Willem Dafoe and Joan Cusack were chosen for the main roles, and Jeremiah S. Chechik, known for National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, was hired to direct. However, after just a week of filming, the producers were unhappy with the early footage, and Dafoe left the project. Ultimately, the film was cancelled, and all the footage was shelved, never to be released.

Batgirl

When Warner Bros. was launching HBO Max, they had big plans for several live-action DC movies made specifically for the streaming service. However, after Discovery acquired Warner Bros., those plans changed dramatically. As a result, many projects were canceled, most notably Batgirl. The film, starring Leslie Grace as Batgirl, would have brought back J.K. Simmons as Commissioner Gordon and Michael Keaton as Batman, continuing his role from The Flash. Despite being fully filmed and edited into a preliminary version, Warner Bros. Discovery decided to scrap the movie altogether, accepting a loss of around $90 million. The financial reasoning behind Hollywood decisions can be hard to understand, even for the smartest detectives.

Black Water Transit

This crime thriller, filmed in New Orleans in 2009 and starring Laurence Fishburne and Karl Urban, has never been released. It became entangled in complicated financial and legal problems involving producer David Bergstein – the details are quite confusing, even when looking at the movie’s Wikipedia page. What is known is that Bergstein was convicted of fraud and sent to prison.

Bogart Slept Here

Robert De Niro is considered one of the best actors of the 20th century, but not every role was a perfect match. After starring in Taxi Driver, he began working with director Mike Nichols and playwright Neil Simon on a movie called Bogart Slept Here. However, they quickly realized De Niro’s serious acting style didn’t quite fit Simon’s humorous writing. Both Nichols and De Niro left the project, and Richard Dreyfuss took over the role. Simon then completely rewrote the script, eventually creating The Goodbye Girl. This new film was a huge success, and Dreyfuss even won an Academy Award for his performance.

Broadway Brawler

Throughout his career, Bruce Willis had a few films that were cancelled mid-production. One example is the 1997 Disney movie Broadway Brawler, where he was supposed to play a retired hockey player in a love story. After about three weeks of filming, Willis reportedly became dissatisfied with how things were progressing. Despite efforts to change the production team and continue, the movie was ultimately abandoned. Disney was understandably frustrated and considered suing Willis for their financial losses. To make things right, Willis agreed to star in three future Disney films—Armageddon, The Sixth Sense, and The Kid—for lower pay, effectively covering the costs of Broadway Brawler. Ironically, all three of those films became huge successes for both Disney and Willis, proving that unexpected outcomes are always possible.

The Day the Clown Cried

One of the most famous movies never finished is this 1972 project by Jerry Lewis, who wrote, directed, and starred in it. He played Helmut Doork, a German clown who provides support to children held in a concentration camp during the Holocaust. The film faced many issues, mainly financial, and was never released because the producers didn’t secure the rights from the original author. After she saw an early version, she disliked it so much that she refused to sign off on the project, effectively ending it. While the film was never completed, enough footage existed to create this early version, which only a few people have seen. Reactions were mixed – some called it a shockingly misguided comedy, while others had more positive opinions. This unfinished cut was given to the Library of Congress with the agreement that it wouldn’t be shown publicly until 2024.

The Deep

Although Citizen Kane was a huge critical success, Orson Welles often had trouble finding money for his later films. He’d frequently start a project, only to run out of funding and have to abandon it. This happened with The Deep, a thriller he worked on in Europe in the mid-1960s with actors Laurence Harvey and Jeanne Moreau. After funding fell through, Welles tried to secure more money, but the sudden death of Harvey in 1973 ended the project for good. The film was based on the novel Dead Calm, which was later made into a movie by director Phillip Noyce.

The Double

As a big movie fan, I always find it fascinating to hear about projects that almost happened. I recently learned that John Travolta and Roman Polanski were gearing up to film an adaptation of Dostoyevsky’s The Double way back in the 90s! They’d gotten pretty far – rehearsals were underway and they were on the verge of shooting – but apparently, Travolta and Polanski had a huge disagreement about the film’s direction, and the whole thing fell through. It’s a shame, but at least we eventually did get a version with Jesse Eisenberg in 2013. It’s funny to think of the movie having its own ‘double’ life, in a way!

A Glimpse of Tiger

Elliott Gould purchased the rights to Herman Raucher’s 1971 novel, A Glimpse of Tiger, intending to star in the movie adaptation. Filming began with director Anthony Harvey, but Gould soon fired him, and was himself accused of behaving strangely on set. Reports indicate Gould’s behavior was so unsettling that security was hired to protect a co-star, and he was eventually deemed unfit to work, leading to a two-year break from filmmaking. He later made a successful comeback with Robert Altman’s The Long Goodbye.

Gore

I remember when all the news about Kevin Spacey came out, it was crazy! Everyone was talking about how quickly Ridley Scott replaced him in All the Money in the World with Christopher Plummer – that was a huge move, and Plummer even got an Oscar nod for it. But what a lot of people don’t know is that around the same time, Spacey had already finished filming a movie about Gore Vidal for Netflix. He was the only lead in that film, so they couldn’t just swap him out like they did with All the Money in the World. Reshooting everything would have been impossible, so Netflix just… shelved it. It’s a total shame, but it looks like we’ll probably never get to see that Gore Vidal biopic.

It’s All True

Like so many of Orson Welles’ ambitious ideas, It’s All True ended up being a bit of a lost cause. It started when he was sent to Latin America as a goodwill ambassador and tasked with making a film celebrating the region’s culture. He shot a bunch of short segments, envisioning a feature film, but then things fell apart back at RKO. A new studio boss took over who wasn’t a fan of Welles’ work, and they basically pulled the plug on the project. They even re-edited The Magnificent Ambersons against his wishes! Instead of letting Welles finish It’s All True, they shelved the footage and just wrote it off as a loss. Later, some of that material was used for a documentary about the unfinished film, but it wasn’t the full movie Welles had intended. It’s a fascinating story, but sadly, we never got to see his original vision come to life.

Revenge of the Nerds (Remake)

At Comic-Con 2006, Fox heavily promoted a planned remake of the 1980s comedy Revenge of the Nerds, which followed a group of outcasts standing up to bullies. The new version was set to star Adam Brody and Kristin Cavallari, with Fanboys director Kyle Newman at the helm. Filming started in the fall, but the project was quickly shut down when Emory University, the planned filming location, withdrew its permission after reading the script. Combined with the studio’s dissatisfaction with the initial footage, the Revenge of the Nerds remake never came to fruition.

Scoob! Holiday Haunt

Originally intended as a streaming exclusive on HBO Max, this follow-up to the 2020 animated film Scoob! met the same fate as Batgirl. Despite being almost finished, Warner Bros. Discovery decided to cancel the project instead of releasing it. As a result, Holiday Haunt was scrapped, and the completed film will never be seen by audiences.

Superman Lives

Warner Bros. invested around $30 million in the movie Superman Lives before ultimately canceling it. By then, Tim Burton was set to direct, and Nicolas Cage was cast as Superman, even completing several costume tests—footage of which appeared in the documentary The Death of Superman Lives – What Happened? The project was deemed too expensive, with an estimated final cost of around $200 million. A somewhat unsettling CGI version of Cage as Superman briefly appeared in The Flash. Tim Burton later expressed his displeasure that his ideas were used without his approval.

10 Things I Hate About Life

Though initially thought of as a follow-up to the film 10 Things I Hate About You, 10 Things I Hate About Life wasn’t actually connected to it beyond sharing the same director, Gil Junger. Unfortunately, the movie was never completed. Filming stopped after just two months, and there are different stories about why. Some say it was due to issues with the production company, while others claim it was because the lead actress, Evan Rachel Wood, became pregnant. After the project was cancelled, Wood and the producers ended up in a legal dispute. Perhaps that brings the total to eleven things to dislike about life.

Trick Or Treat

Michael Apted, known for directing the Up series, Coal Miner’s Daughter, and The World Is Not Enough, began filming a movie about a lesbian couple trying to have a baby, but it was never completed. Around 40 minutes of footage was filmed before production stopped, reportedly due to a conflict between the lead actress, Bianca Jagger, and the producers regarding how much nudity and sexual content the film would show.

Wake

Bruce Willis had started working on another film, an action movie where he would have played a sociopath returning home for his brother’s funeral – which explains the title, Wake. Unfortunately, like another of his projects, this film was halted due to funding problems. Although the producers tried to find new investors, the project ended when Willis and the director, John Pogue, left.

Who Killed Bambi?

As a huge cinema fan, I always loved hearing the story of how the Sex Pistols tried to make their own version of A Hard Day’s Night. Apparently, they were massive fans of Russ Meyer, especially his film Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, so they approached him to direct. Meyer, in turn, brought in Roger Ebert – yes, the Roger Ebert, who co-wrote Dolls with him – to help with the script. They came up with a screenplay called Who Killed Bambi?, which was meant to kick off with a shocking scene of a rock star – think Mick Jagger – shooting a deer with a bow and arrow. Meyer actually filmed that opening, but sadly, the project fell through due to funding issues. Whether it was the studio backing out or the band’s manager running out of money, nobody seems to agree. Whatever happened, the film never got made, and we’ll never know who actually killed Bambi!

Yellow Submarine (Remake)

Director Robert Zemeckis once planned to create a new, motion-capture version of the Beatles’ animated film, Yellow Submarine. However, after a few of his motion-capture movies, like A Christmas Carol and Mars Needs Moms, weren’t successful, Disney closed his animation studio. While his version of Yellow Submarine wasn’t completed, some early concept art and storyboards are available online.

2026-02-18 22:29