The genre of video game movies is ripe with potential that major Hollywood studios have consistently failed to capitalize on for years. This isn’t for lack of trying though, as the last ten years have seen an exponential increase in the number of movies adapted from video games. This year has already seen two high-profile video game movies find success on the big screen; those being the Tom Holland-led Uncharted film and the second live-action Sonic the Hedgehog movie.

Sony Pictures has been one of the studios leading the charge in this landscape, which makes sense, considering Sony also owns Playstation and therefore, has the film rights to an endless supply of source material. In 2019, Sony launched Playstation Productions, which serves as a film production studio whose sole goal is to adapt a multitude of Playstation brands into various films and television shows. One series that has previously been in line for a film adaptation is Sly Cooper, which was a staple of Sony’s Playstation 2 library in the early-to-mid-2000s. An animated film adaptation based on Sly Cooper was first announced more than eight years ago, so why hasn’t this movie seen the light of day? Here’s what you need to know.

MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY

When Was it Supposed to Happen?

     Blockade Entertainment

Rumors began as far back as 2012 that Sony was developing a film based on Sly Cooper, but it wasn’t until 2014 that an official announcement came. On January 28th, 2014, Sony not only announced the film, but released a teaser trailer for it online. The trailer served as an introduction to the core trio of characters in the series: Bentley, the brains of the group; Murray, the muscle; and Sly, the charismatic team leader. The trailer ends with the film’s title card and a declaration that the film would be “Breaking into theaters in 2016.”

Who Was Involved?

Director Kevin Munroe was confirmed to helm the project alongside its announcement in 2014. Most notably, Munroe had previously directed the 2007 animated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film, simply titled TMNT. He was also working on another animated video game adaptation at the time, Ratchet and Clank. Based on another landmark Playstation 2 game, the Ratchet and Clank film would actually go on to be completed and released in 2016 (but more on that later). The Sly Cooper film was developed by Blockade Entertainment, which had already completed another movie adaptation of a Playstation game, Heavenly, and was also working on the Ratchet and Clank project. The studio Rainmaker Entertainment (now known as Mainfraime Studios) was working on the animation for Sly Cooper. Rainmaker had previously produced the 2013 animated film Escape from Planet Earth, and it was, once again, also working on Ratchet and Clank.

The trailer confirmed that two mainstays of the franchise’s voice cast, Matt Olsen as Bentley and Chris Murphy as Murray, would be returning to voice their characters in the film. However, Kevin Miller had been recast as the voice of Sly. Though Miller had voiced the lead character in every entry in the game series, Dragon Ball Z’s Ian James Miller had been brought on to voice the character for the film.

What Was the Story?

     Sony Computer Entertainment

Not much is known about what the actual story of the Sly Cooper movie was intended to be, though back in 2014 one of the film’s producers did shine some light on what to expect. Brad Foxhoven of Blockade Entertainment spoke with the Chicago Tribune and said that the film was not planned as an origin story and that it would stay faithful to the story of the games. He said, “This isn’t a true origin story of the characters, as the team is already together when we meet them in the film. We are using the games as true source material, and working closely with Sony and Sucker Punch to make sure that the approach remains faithful to the world everyone loves. That said, we are still looking to add some nice twists into the film that will keep the fans on their toes.”

Foxhoven went on to say that the film would include other key characters from the series, such as the detective Carmelita Fox and the villainous owl, Clockwerk. Considering Clockwerk’s inclusion, it can be assumed the film would’ve largely adapted the story of the first game in the series, Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus. The story of that game sees Sly coming to terms with his extensive family history of thievery, as he, Bentley, and Murray track down the missing pages of his family’s book of secrets, while also coming face-to-face with the group of villains responsible for the murder of Sly’s parents.

The Ratchet and Clank Effect

     Focus Features

Considering that the Ratchet and Clank film and the Sly Cooper film were both in development at the same time, with many of the same people working on both, it’s no surprise that the fate of one would impact the other, which is exactly what happened. Ratchet and Clank was released in April 2016, and its critical and box-office performance was disappointing to say the least. The film received an abysmal 21% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and it only pulled in about $13 million in total box office receipts. It opened to a $4.8 million haul domestically but fell by nearly 70 percent in its second weekend.

Following the failure of Ratchet and Clank, any momentum that Sly Cooper had, came screeching to a halt. Later in 2016, Munroe stated that he hadn’t worked on Sly Cooper in nearly a year-and-a-half. Rainmaker initially said they were going to re-evaluate the budget and timing of the film, but the studio eventually pulled out of the project entirely at the end of 2017. With that, Munroe and many of the film’s producers also left the project, and the film was effectively, and unfortunately, canceled.

Could a Sly Cooper Movie Still Happen?

At the end of the day, it seems abundantly clear at this point that this movie isn’t happening anytime soon, if at all. An animated series based on the franchise was announced in mid-2017, which would have consisted of 52 11-minute episodes, though there has been no word on that project in years. While at this point, it still doesn’t seem likely that Sly Cooper will hit either the big or small screen any time soon, never say never. With Sony’s continued interest in developing video game movies, the growing success of the genre, and the creation of Playstation Productions, things aren’t entirely hopeless for the Sly Cooper fans out there.

Though this first attempt at a film based on the ring-tailed master thief may not have panned out, it did show that there was at least some interest in transitioning the property into a medium beyond the video games. Considering the then in-development Uncharted film was moved under the Playstation Productions umbrella, it’s possible that some form of the film or animated series did as well. Sony and Playstation still have this series sitting on their shelf. Whether they will decide to do anything with it? Only time will tell.