I’d been meaning to write about my ill-fated Sonic film project SONIC ARMAGEDDON for quite some time. A number of fans have inquired over the years for the details, so I guess now is just as good a time as any to spill the beans.
For about the first eight years I worked on the SONIC THE HEDGEHOG series for Archie Comics, the idea of working on any animated Sonic project usually came up only while I was attending the San Diego Comic-Con, and the first time the subject was even brought up was when I attended back in 1994. It had been four years since I first attended the convention back in 1990, and about the only thing that mattered to me while I was there was checking out other work opportunities.
To me, work opportunities meant networking with editors at the various comic companies. However, while my then-co-writer Mike Kanterovich and I were signing copies of SONIC THE HEDGEHOG issues 11 and 13 at the Archie Comics booth, we were approached by executives from SEGA, DiC Animation & the ABC-TV network and asked to submit story ideas for the hoped-for 3rd season of the SONIC SatAM series.
So we went back home after the convention, worked up a couple of ideas into an outline format and submitted them, only to learn the show was just canceled. POWER RANGERS had beaten SONIC in the ratings and ABC was ready to move onto the next thing.
Flash forward almost five years later. I had been living in the Western New York region all that time and continued to submit stories and art for the SONIC series. I was also the one tasked with handling the Sonic spin-off projects such as PRINCESS SALLY and KNUCKLES THE ECHIDNA.
What separated KNUCKLES from any other Sonic project was the fact I had been the sole creator to guide the character’s adventures in the comics. This resulted in a continuity that had eluded the SONIC series as a result of multiple writers and editors. KNUCKLES had a consistent creative team along with its editor the first 21 issues, and people noticed.
One of those people who did had worked on a Dreamworks film THE PRINCE OF EGYPT, and contacted me via telephone one evening, inquiring if the rights to my KNUCKLES stories were available. I responded by saying I’d make some inquiries with SEGA and get back to them.
When I contacted the SEGA Licensing Manager at the time – I can’t be sure exactly who without doing further research as it seemed like SEGA had a revolving door at the time when it came to personnel – their response positively stunned me. They had no idea if the rights for Knuckles were available or even attached to another Sonic project that was being proposed.
As a result, there was no further contact with anyone from Dreamworks ever again. It wasn’t long after that, however, when an alumni of the SatAM series contacted Archie Comics with a feeler to see if they’d be interested in hiring him to write a Sonic story or two. Specifically, he wanted a chance to see the story ideas he proposed for the 3rd season adapted in the comics format. His name was Ben Hurst, and I was given his number by the Sonic editor at the time and told to call Ben to see how viable the project was.
Had I known what the result of our conversations would be beforehand, I’d have taken copious notes or run the other way. Editor Justin Gabrie had asked me to find out the nature of Ben’s inquiry, to which Ben was forthcoming. In so many words, he wanted to write a script for the comic book series. That conversation didn’t take long, and we parted with me promising to take the matter up with Justin.
Justin immediately embraced the idea once I told him. I relayed to Ben that Justin was agreeable to placing his story in an upcoming issue of SONIC SUPER SPECIAL, allocating the issue’s full 40 pages of story
Upon hearing this, Ben’s next question was understandable. As a professional writer, he wanted to know how much the job paid. When I responded withe the $45 page rate Justin had quoted me to tell him, the response on his end was one of disappointment having learned comics didn’t pay anything near what he was paid for writing a script for an animated series. Not even close.
In fairness to Ben, back then Hollywood scriptwriters didn’t slum it writing comic book scripts the way they do now. It wouldn’t be until the WGA strike in 2008 that writers would turn to comics as an alternate source of income as well as early development of a potential film project. (This has only made it more difficult for new writers to break into comics if they don’t have previous Hollywood writing experience.)
So I thought that was the end of my contact with Ben until he called asking if I would be interested in pitching an animated Sonic project to SEGA.
Before saying anything more, I need to add the caveat that Ben Hurst passed away on August 10, 2010, leaving a controversy within Sonic fandom concerning interactions I had with him during the late 90’s. As a result, I’ve stayed mostly silent regarding those conversations as a result of some fans complaining Ben wasn’t alive to rebut my version. My response to that is nothing stopped Ben from responding to me when I learned of his comments. Thus, the reader is free to accept whatever version they want, but this is my side, and I’m sticking with it.
Long story short, Ben had asked if I would use my contacts at SEGA to see if they would be interested in paying me & him to develop a new animated Sonic project. Immediately alarm bells went off in my head. I was living outside of Buffalo, NY working in the comics industry while Ben was an established writer in Hollywood with animated series credits to his name. Out of the two of us, who do you think was most likely to get an animated project off the ground?
I responded by telling Ben that I thought it highly unlikely that SEGA would pay us to develop an animated project. If anything, they would expect us to PAY THEM. I had enough experience by that point dealing with licensed properties to know the owner of any IP is looking for a payday when it comes to using the rights for their properties. I was bewildered wondering why Ben didn’t know this already.
Needless to say, I didn’t sign on to Ben’s proposal. He may have had no problem throwing his credibility out the window, but I didn’t have any credibility to throw out at that time. When I did speak to the SEGA Licensing Mgr, this person only confirmed what I knew to be a fact. Neither Ben or I would’ve gotten even a meeting with SEGA if the premise was for them to pay us.
Ben would go on to publicly claim I sabotaged his effort to get an animated SONIC project off the ground, but the reality was simply this: Had Ben approached SEGA with a check and a business plan, he had the experience and industry connections to get an animated SONIC project off the ground before I ever could.
In fact, it would be another five years before my friendship with Fox animated X-MEN Producer/Director Larry Houston had developed to the point where we could comfortably discuss working on a project together.
I had met Larry at the 1998 San Diego Comic-Con as a result of his son Adrian being a huge Sonic fan. From that point forward, Larry, my partner Bernadette, myself and our kids would hang out together during subsequent Comic-Cons, as that would be the only time we’d see Larry and Adrian until Bernie and I decided to move the family out to California during the autumn of 2001.
Sometime in the early part of 2003, I made an inquiry to SEGA Licensing Manger Robert Leffler about the possibility of creating a SONIC THE HEDGEHOG graphic novel which would be published in hardcover format by Image Comics. Although he expressed interest in expanding the Sonic franchise in such a manner, Archie had been the sole steady revenue stream for licensing during the past 10 years at that point, and he had no desire to upset the apple cart.
I then pitched him the premise of coming to SEGA for a license to do an animated project. By then, Larry and I had been discussing pooling our resources to see how feasible such a project would be getting off the ground, so we scheduled a visit with Robert at the SEGA offices in San Francisco, where he proved to be receptive to the idea.
We exchanged correspondence whereupon a meeting took place at the agreed upon location and date at approximately 9:00am, where we met for breakfast inside the hotel dining room.
My team consisted of Larry, who had the Hollywood experience and connections, myself for my track record with the character, and my partner Bernadette Shahin, a seasoned veteran capable of sitting at any grown-up table when discussing business. We were dressed in business attire for the occasion.
It turned out Robert could make the meeting, so he and I handled the introductions, whereupon Robert took control guiding the proceedings.
We had come to discuss making an all-new animated SONIC project based material created for the Archie Comics SONIC series as well as the animated SatAM SONIC series, discussing what each member of my team brought to the table. We had come prepared to make an offer of a down payment to license the Sonic property on condition we received a letter of intent agreement with SEGA.
It was at that point Toyoda-San and Ishihara-San surprised us with an offer of partnership. They explained they had been attempting to get a Sonic project off the ground with Hollywood studios previously, only to discover studios interested in obtaining the license in order to bury it so as to not have it compete against a project where they had sole ownership interests. As for the studios that had no competing interests, they simply weren’t interested because they’d have no ownership stake in Sonic to begin with.
Bernie, Larry and I couldn’t believe what we were hearing. We had been spending considerable time figuring out how we were going to raise $20-$25K just to get a 1 to 2-year commitment to get a project off the ground, only to be offered the keys to the kingdom after we had just proposed sharing any and all 3D assets we’d create for our animated project with SEGA to use in any gaming project they developed.
Upon concluding the meeting, Robert and I discussed our next contact to get the project moving along once Toyoda-San and Ishihara-san returned to Japan.
Our euphoria turned out to be short-lived. Robert relayed how Toyoda-San and Ishihara-san along with a number of SEGA executives were let go in a massive corporate purge. We’d have to wait until the dust settled before discussing the next move.
I had discussed an alternate plan to move forward when I received a phone call from Robert. Yuji Naka of SEGA of Japan had pushed for a Japanese-based Sonic series, which was going forward and thus taking the Sonic property off the market for the next 2 years. The project was to be an animated series named SONIC X and already Robert was seeing problems with SEGA’s approach.
Since I had proposed licensing a different SEGA property as a means to create a relationship as well as establish a track record with SEGA once Sonic became available again, Robert forwarded us a copy of the agreement SEGA had entered into regarding the CRAZY TAXI property for us to use as a template in putting together a deal for PHANTASY STAR with SEGA.
Robert had sent me copies of the most recent PHANTASY STAR games as well as copies of all in-house reference material for use in developing our project.
Operating under the company name Floating Island Productions, we hired a lawyer to draw up the contracts according to the specifications we had been provided. Despite Robert’s assistance, it would not be smooth sailing as SEGA of Japan would prove to be a huge obstacle to anything SEGA of America wanted to do.
In the meantime, Robert continued to provide support to our efforts, such as actually shipping me the official SEGA Sonic costume used for public appearances, as seen here in the crate it arrived in during the summer of 2004, which we used at the San Diego Comic-Con which was about to commence in a few days.
In the top photo, Larry and I posed with Sonic, while Bernie can be seen in the background. In the pic below, Robert stops by my table in Artist Alley to pose with Sonic as well as check out the display of SONIC X material he supplied for me to display.
Robert would also provide us with passes to the latest E3 annual gatherings taking place in downtown Los Angeles for 3 years straight as we worked to strategize and advance our projects.
Among the reasons Robert was helpful was that he had just witnessed SEGA’s efforts at licensing SONIC X collapse. There would be no McDonald’s Happy Meal toys or any toys of any kind. Nor would there be much of anything in licensing opportunities. In fact, the publishers of Archie Comics had to be dragged kicking and screaming to license SONIC X as a comic book series. Not only that, but they totally ignored the SEGA anthology series proposal I had tried to put together, where 3 different SEGA properties would be featured in each issue, with PHANTASY STAR the regular ongoing part of the book.
Events would take a turn late in 2006 when Robert gave the go-ahead to prepare our animated SONIC project to be pitched to SEGA once again. Sales hadn’t been doing well for the company, so they were thinking a complete revamp of the Sonic property was called for. Everything was on the table for discussion.
I had been commissioned by Shout! Factory to do the cover art for the SatAM SONIC DVD boxset around this time, with Robert signing off on me putting together a promotional effort that included selling T-Shirts featuring my cover art. This was notable because I had departed working on the Archie SONIC series a year earlier, having moved on to work in the animation industry.
With credits that included a stint as storyboard artist on the Fox-TV animated series KING OF THE HILL and other animation projects, and Larry continuing to be pulled in to work on various animated projects, Robert felt early in 2007 would be the time SEGA would be receptive to our pitch.
This time, we had prepared a website for use to brief SEGA on our proposal, featuring the presentation art prepared for our initial presentation back in 2003, along with a newly created animatic featuring a rough proposal how our film would begin.
We had been in contact going back and forth on a number of details to make sure we had everything nailed down. At left is the last email communication I received from Robert.
After that, it was nothing but radio silence.
When I tried contacting anyone at SEGA for further information, it was like hitting a brick wall. Nobody knew anything. Or if they did, they weren’t saying so.
Bernie, Larry and I wondered for months what had happened. We had spent more than 4 years in contact with Robert to the point where the relationship wasn’t just business, it was personal. We had broken bread over many a meal whenever we encountered him and the phone conversations weren’t just business either. He once discussed giving permission the bereaved parents of a little boy who died from leukemia. The boy loved Sonic so much that the parents wanted to put Sonic’s image on their child’s tombstone. All of us were incredibly moved by the story.
Finally, on August 10, 2007, Dyna Lopez, Robert’s assistant, sent out an email announcing Robert had passed due to cancer at the age of 50.
Bernie, Larry and I were devastated at the news. The project no longer mattered. We had lost a friend.
That would’ve been the end of this story except for Robert’s boss, Rob Lightner, had sent me an email seeking to have a meeting.
After some back and forth, Larry and I finally met with Rob at the Beverly Hills Hilton. Operating under the premise SONIC was off the table, we opened with a pitch for PHANTASY STAR. Rob surprised us by putting Sonic front and center. He didn’t want to hear anything but that. We told him how we wanted to proceed, that we would need a Letter Of Intent to move the project forward. Everyone at that meeting was agreeable regarding what was to happen next, but as usual, SEGA Corporate had other plans.
They were interested in getting in bed with Marvel, and everything else was pushed aside, including us.
My last official contact with SEGA arrived in the form of a package. It was delivered to my front door where I was residing at the time. Inside was the last licensed product Robert Leffler had given his approval to. It was a 15th Anniversary SONIC THE HEDGEHOG statue accompanied by a note explaining I was receiving it as SEGA’s acknowledgement of my close relationship with Robert.
It sits on a shelf in my family room. I consider it a family heirloom to be passed on to my children and their children.
