Ratchet & Clank animated film out in 2015

Insomniac Games’ Ratchet and Clank are headed to the big screen to star in their very own animated movie, according to Arcade Sushi and Polygon.

 

The movie is scheduled for a 2015 theater release.

 

 

Two animation houses are developing the film: Rainmaker Entertainment, the Canadian studio lauded for its work on television greats Transformers: Beast Wars and ReBoot; and Blockade Entertainment, a company that creates animated commercials and trailers based on video games.

 

Fans of the series won’t have to worry about the Ratchet and Clank movie suffering from the same curse every other video game movie adaptation seems to be afflicted with – that of being so untrue to the source material they might as well slap a different title on to the film. The two animation houses have sought the help of Insomniac’s T.J. Fixman, writer of all the Ratchet and Clank Games, to do the script.

 

James Stevenson, community lead for Insomniac on the PlayStation Blog, stated that Insomniac will “play a hands-on role with the film’s production, screenplay, character development and animation consulting.”

 

According to Brad Foxhaven, CEO of Blockade Entertainment, the production companies are aiming for an audience wider than the series’ fans. For this purpose, the film will be an origin story of the titular lombax and robot dynamic duo.

 

“You don’t want to alienate the core people that made this franchise so successful, but at the end of the day, the game itself is irrelevant,” added president of Rainmaker, Michael Hefferon. “It’s all about what you’re seeing on that screen. It’s about going to see a fantastic animated movie.”

 

“We've wanted to do a movie for a long time,” said Stevenson. “Ratchet & Clank’s action, humor and galaxy-spanning adventures have really been the basis for a fantastic game series, and we think it’d translate perfectly to the big screen.”

 

As another treat to fans, James A. Taylor, David Kaye, and Jim Ward will reprise their roles as the voice actors for Ratchet, Clank, and Captain Qwark respectively.

 

“With our script locked and film now officially announced, we are in discussion with potential celebrity talent — many of whom are big fans of the game,” Hefferon said.

 

In addition, Rainmaker will be using Insomniac's game assets as reference material in order to facilitate the pre-production phase. “All the assets, rigs, models and elements necessary to make the film will be entirely created from scratch,” said Hefferon.

 

In conjunction with the film’s announcement, all Ratchet & Clank games will be discounted on the PlayStation Store starting April 30.

 

Aside from the Ratchet and Clank movie, Blockade Entertainment is also working on a video game movie adaptation of another Sony franchise, Heavenly Sword. Unlike its more popular cousin, however, the Heavenly Sword movie is expected to be a direct-to-video release. — TJD, GMA News