Ico (film)

Ico is an upcoming American 3D computer-animated fantasy adventure film based on the 2001 video game of the same name. Produced by Glass Ball Productions and Sony Pictures Animation, the film is being directed by Guillermo del Toro from a screenplay by Brad Copeland, and will feature an ensemble cast that includes Finn Wolfhard, Millie Bobby Brown, Emma Thompson, Nicole Kidman, Harrison Ford, Andy Serkis, Forest Whitaker, Daniel Kaluuya, Adrien Brody, Orlando Bloom, Ving Rhames, Keri Russell, and Mahershala Ali.

Production of the film was first leaked online after 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 photo-realistic computer-animation. It is scheduled to be released on November 29, 2019 by Sony Pictures Releasing under the Columbia Pictures label, in RealD 3D, Digital 3D, Dolby Cinema, IMAX, and IMAX 3D.

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 while meeting new allies and enemies on the way as they plan to defeat the Queen.

Cast

 * 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." The character was first introduced in the Universal Animation film Computeropolis: The Deep Web in 2018 while being voiced by Noah Schnapp which was originally the intended voice actor for Ico in this film but was replaced by Wolfhard as his voice was a better fit for the character than Schnapp's. In addition to voicing the character, Wolfhard also performs the motion-capture as well. To do the motion-capture, Wolfhard received some advice in the process of pre-production from Andy Serkis who would later end up being cast in the film as well. Ico's distinct horns were created and animated through the use of CGI.
 * Millie Bobby Brown as Yorda, the daughter of The Queen who helps Ico. Her body is more weaker than others due to the Queen using some of Yorda's soul to keep herself alive.
 * Emma Thompson as Queen Michigore, 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 misses their younger days so much that they try to recreate them along with acting youthful themselves. But she is also that one parent who wants her own child to follow her footsteps in her own success." The character's face was modeled 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. Kidman described her as "that one awkward friend at school who ends up being your best bud and is always by your back through everything." Initially, Kidman described her casting as being absurd and pointless until she later met the director Guillermo del Toro who treated her nicely.
 * Harrison Ford as Oggoth, the mystical wizard who ends up giving Ico his horns. Describing Oggoth, del Toro said, "He is the Merlin to the Ico who is supposed to be Prince Arthur. He has a real humble mind set and knows danger by sensing it. He is also a father-like figure to the parent-less Ico." Ford described Oggoth as a "grandfather" and "godly-like" person.
 * Andy Serkis as Shihriax, the leader of the various shadow creatures that are surrounding the village. Describing Serkis' performance, del Toro said, "He's like a leader of a street gang but more fantasized and magical. That's what it says in the script, which he's kind of doing." On bringing the character to life, Serkis said, "What Guillermo [del Toro] wanted, that I found out little by little as I was doing it, is that he wanted me to explore and just keep pushing the character and keep creating [him] as I was in front of the camera."
 * Rihanna as Eva, one of the Queen's personal assistants who is also a slave because of her family's poverty and is also one of Ico's childhood friends that he grew up with.
 * Forest Whitaker as Narco, a former thief who now works for the local mental hospital where Ico was trapped in for nearly half of his life. Narco is also Ico's uncle who along with a select few of others, doesn't actually pick or treat Ico different because of his unusual horns.
 * Daniel Kaluuya as Whizzaro, the comical elf of the Eastward Realm.
 * Adrien Brody as Emon, a crooked thief.
 * Orlando Bloom
 * Ving Rhames as Lord Triton, the evil soul-taker and the king of the shadow realm.
 * Keri Russell as Venex, a tomboy woman who is the head of the Guardian Knights.
 * Mahershala Ali as the voice of Argo, the magical horse who is Ico's go to for transportation to any destination.

Noah Schnapp appears as Melvin the Wander, a youthful teenage orphan that is lost in the world who searches to look for himself. Writer Brad Copeland, called him "a self-centered dummy who doesn't realize that's lonely and lost but instead explores the dangerous world." Director del Toro, based the character on the Wander character of Shadows of the Colossus and made Melvin more distinct by changing the gender of the character and actually giving him a name. Del Toro also plays Willem Ford, a bounty hunter who is trying to kill Ico. For the basis of the character, Glass Ball based the character on a mix of the character Dennis from The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (2004) along with Tony Stark / Iron Man. Del Toro called this character, "an accident prone bounty hunter who always lets his bounties get away", and is compared to Ed from Ed, Edd and Eddy. Dylan O'Brien portrays Larz, the more-known son of the Queen, and Yorda's older brother, who is mostly told to be the future prince but also suffers from anxiety. Hailee Steinfeld plays Mono, a young newly wedded woman who is wealthy and bullies Ico. Rather than being described as a much older woman who is cursed and slowly dying, Mono was re-imagined as "a wealthy, selfish young lady" to reflect more realistic effects of being rich but a maiden, by crafting him more into a heartless rich person and also serves as the bully to Ico. In response to the negative backlash of the character, Del Toro responded by saying, "this is only the beginning, Mono will end up becoming her video game self in the sequel." Steinfeld said that the reason for Mono hating Ico is because "she's mad that he is more unique than her with his horns and often causes a riot to chase after him which is the main reason why he is banished."

Jon Favreau plays Sir Roderick, a clumsy knight who is the proclaimed hero of the village. Larenz Tate and Logan Paul respectively play Washington and Jackson, two descendants of the shadow realm; they are accomplices of Michigore who uses their dark magic powers to start terror. Dennis Haysbert and Selenis Leyva play Ico's long lost real parents who abandoned him after seeing horns grow out of his head. Idris Elba has been cast as Grah, while George Takei, Danny Pudi, Alexandra Holden, and Jason O'Mara have been cast in disclosed roles.

Development
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. In May 2018, Sony set the film for a December 25, 2019 release, and announced that the film would be produced by Gingo's adult label Glass Ball Productions. In late October 2018, Sony Pictures reached a new multi-film agreement with IMAX Corporation to release their films in IMAX, including Ico.

Casting
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.

Animation
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 photo-realistic computer animation.

Marketing
For the Sony Pictures panel at Comic Con Experience 2018, Del Toro and Wolfhard appeared in a video from the film's set to promote it.

Sony released teaser poster for the film on February 14, 2019 along with a teaser trailer on the same day. The trailer received mixed to positive reviews and acclaim for the animation with most calling it "more realistic than any modern video game released" as well as praise towards the characterization of the title character. However, criticism was made from The Queen's lack of dialogue and short appearance in the trailer. Sony chairman Tom Rothman later acknowledged this, explaining that the intention had been to "heighten anticipation" for the film.

Rothman presented new footage of the film at CinemaCon 2019, and acknowledged that it revealed the film's version of Ico by saying, "See, we didn't forget to put The Queen in the movie!" Di Placido was more positive of this trailer, praising the appearance of and visuals for the characters, but was concerned about the voice acting of Ico noting that it's perfect but doesn't fit for a person of his age.

Release
Ico is currently scheduled to be released in the United States on November 27, 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 of November 29 to avoid competition with Frozen 2 before being pushed back to its current date. The film will be shown in IMAX theaters as part of the multi-film deal with Sony Pictures.

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.