Ico (film)

Ico is an upcoming American 3D computer-animated fantasy drama film based on the 2001 video game of the same name. Produced by Sony Pictures Animation and Glass Ball Productions, the film is being directed by Guillermo del Toro from a screenplay by Brad Copeland.

Production of the film was first leaked online afte the November 2014 hacks of Sony's computers which revealed Amy Pascal in talks with Gingo Animation for a feature film. It was eventually confirmed in 2016 with the film intended on being in motion-capture combined with photorealistic computer-animation.

It is scheduled to be released on November 29, 2019 in the United States by Sony Pictures Releasing under the Columbia Pictures label.

Plot
A young boy named Ico was born with horns, which his village considers a bad omen. Warriors lock him away in an abandoned fortress. During his explorations of the fortress, Ico encounters Yorda, the daughter of the castle's Queen. The Queen plans to use Yorda's body to extend her own lifespan. Learning this, Ico seeks to escape the castle with Yorda, keeping her safe from the shadow-like creatures that attempt to draw her back.

Cast
Additionally Forest Whitaker, Daniel Kaluuya, and Adrien Brody have been cast in undisclosed main roles.
 * Finn Wolfhard as Ico, a young boy seen as a freak due to being born with horns. In this film adaption, Ico is written as an unknown orphan who was abandoned by his own parents after the discovery of his unusual horns. Director Guillermo del Toro describes Ico as, "an outcast who differs himself from the others of his age in the little village while being little boy in school who has trouble fitting in due to cultural as well as personal differences." Regarding Wolfhard's casting, producer Brad Copeland said, "Ico's personal experiences can be much similar to most of Stranger Things specifically being the most close to the character Eleven and Wolfhard's distinct voice can definitely match what the character would actually sound like." Along with voicing Ico, Wolfhard also performs the motion-capture for the character as well.
 * Millie Bobby Brown as Yorda, the daughter of The Queen who helps Ico.
 * Emma Thompson as The Queen, the queen of the castle that uses Yorda's body in order to extend her lifespan. Thompson described the character as "that one person who missses their younger days so much that they try to recreate them along with acting youthful themselves." The character's face was modelled to resemble Thompson herself.
 * Nicole Kidman as Margli, a youthful elf who is the caretaker of Ico after she found him in the forest lying down alone. She is described as "that one best buddy at school who has your back no matter what even with rumors being told about you."
 * Harrison Ford as Oggoth, the mystical wizard who ends up giving Ico his horns.
 * Andy Serkis as Shihriax

Production
A film adaption of Ico originally came about based on the success of the proposed film adaptation of Shadow of the Colossus by Misher Films in conjunction with Sony Pictures and Fumito Ueda. Following the November 2014 hack of Sony's computers, emails between Sony Pictures co-chairman Amy Pascal and president Doug Belgrad were released stating that Sony was in talks with Gingo Animation about an animated film based on Ico. The emails also mentioned a possibility where Sony would handle the film's United States distribution while Universal Pictures would handle international distribution.

In October 2017, it was officially announced that Sony would be teaming up with Gingo to make an animated Ico adaptation, with Brad Copeland writing the film's script. Two months later, Guillermo del Toro, called the original Ico game a “masterpiece,” was announced as director. As with The Star, Sony Pictures Animation will have the animation produced by another studio other than Sony Pictures Imageworks, which handles digital production for most of SPA's films. For this film, Ico will be animated by Gingo Animation's new division called Creative Step Studio and will also be animated in a combination of motion capture along with photorealistic computer animation. In May 2018, Sony set the film for a December 25, 2019 release, and announced that the film would be co-produced by Glass Ball Productions. In June 2018, it was announced that Stranger Things co-stars Finn Wolfhard and Millie Bobby Brown were cast as Ico and Yorda respectively, while Emma Thompson will voice the Queen. Pascal also announced newer characters will be introduced in the film.

Release
Ico is currently scheduled to be released in the United States on November 29, 2019 by Columbia Pictures. It was previously scheduled for release on December 25, 2019 and later on November 22, 2019 but was pushed back a week to avoid competition with ''Frozen 2. ''

Future
In November 2018, Guillermo del Toro stated that he intends to start a franchise for Ico with adaptions of other Team Ico games such as Shadows of the Colossus as long as the film is successful enough.