Undertale (2022 film)

Undertale is an upcoming American live action/computer animated comedy drama fantasy adventure film directed by Wes Anderson. Based on the cult classic RPG created by Toby Fox, it was written by Anderson, Alex Hirsch, and Bob Persichetti, from a story by Phil Lord and Toby Fox. The film was produced by Legendary Pictures in association with Indian Paintbrush and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing. Kara Hayward and Asher Angel plays their live action roles as Frisk and Leon, while Edward Norton, Phillipa Soo, Bill Murray, Domhnall Gleeson, Saoirse Ronan, Justin Felbinger, Kate Miducci, Frances McDormand, Willem Dafoe, Pierce Gagnon, and Liev Schreiber play their animated roles. It's the first movie to be released as part of a cinematic universe known as the Indie Initiative. The plot follows the two as they find a secret inside Mount Ebott and learn about the lost past of the monster race.

The film was announced by Fox himself via Twitter on January 2022 and Anderson was announced as the director in March of the same year. Principal photography began May 2023 in Georgia and parts of Thailand and Dublin and ended in February 2024.

The movie was released worldwide in October 21, 2027 to average to positive reviews from critics and fans of the game with praise for it's visual effects, tone, and performances, particularly those of Soo and Cranston. It was also a box office success, grossing $400 million worldwide, making it the highest grossing video game adaptation movie of all time in front of Sonic The Hedgehog and Pokemon Detective Pikachu.

Plot
(coming soon)

Humans

 * Kara Hayward as Frisk Dreemurr-An orphan who doesn't know her parents. Is adopted by Toriel and Asgore.
 * Asher Angel as Leon Porter-Frisk's only friend
 * as Betty Porter-Leon's mom
 * Ralph Macchio as Mr. Reid-Leon and Frisk's teacher

Monsters

 * Edward Norton as Flowey the Flower-A talking flower
 * Phillipa Soo as Toriel Dreemurr-A caring mother
 * Bill Murray as Sans the Skeleton-
 * Domhnall Gleeson as Papyrus-A lively skeleton who wants to capture a human
 * Saoirse Ronan as Undyne-
 * Justin Felbinger as Monster Kid-
 * Kate Miducci as Alphys-A very shy dinosaur who loves anime and manga and has a crush on Undyne.
 * Jason Schwartzman as Mettaton-A robotic celebrity who is the host of entertainment in the Underground on a television channel called MTT. He does a cooking show, a musical, the news and much more.
 * Willem Dafoe as Asgore Dreemurr-An anthropomorphic white goat and is the king of the Underground and all monsters who used to be with Toriel before she left him all alone.
 * Pierce Gagnon as Asriel Dreemurr-
 * Liev Schreiber as Asriel Dreemurr(God of Hyperdeath)
 * Keiyan Lonsdale as Napstablook-A ghost with crippling depression and is the cousin of Mettaton.
 * Tilda Swinton as Muffet-A female spider who runs a bakery and has a pet cupcake monster. Has an army of spiders by her side.

Other cast members included Tony Revolori as Samuel Windle, Matthew Patrick as Mad Dummy, Frank Wood as Doggo, Tina Fey as Temmie, Sean McLoughlin as Burgerpants, and Harvey Keitel as Gerson.

Development
In September 15 2021, the day of Undertale's anniversary, Fox expressed his thoughts on making a TV show and movie based on his game. And on October 8, it was announced that Legendary Entertainment had acquired these live-action adaptations from Fox with Sony Pictures set to distribute the movie. By December, it was announced that Phil Lord and Christopher Miller would develop the film, as well as possibly direct. In March 2023, 2 months after production had started, Annapurna Pictures and Indian Paintbrush joined the production, and financed the film with $70 million dollars. As a result Annapurna Pictures founder Megan Ellison and Indian Paintbrush founder Steven Rales joined the producer team. In May, it was announced that Wes Anderson had been set to direct the movie.

Writing
On October 10 2021, it was announced that Alex Hirsch, the creator of Gravity Falls had been set to write the film, based on the improvised story written by Fox. Hirsch wanted to write a film that would appease fans of the source material while changing things up a little. For example, Hirsch decided to add Leon into the film, even though the character wasn't part of the original game. He said that Leon was added because Frisk doesn't talk that much, and that's she's shy, so she has someone to help talk to. He then decided to cut some content of the original game up so that it would hit the 2 hour mark, like when Frisk decides to date Papyrus. He also added some elements of his shows, like Gravity Falls. When Wes Anderson became director, him along with Bob Persichetti rewrote and modified the script a little bit, adding Anderson's signature deadpan humor.

Casting
Casting directors Sarah Halley Finn and Douglas Aibel wanted actors to capture the motivations, traits, and emotions of the game's signature characters. For Toriel, thousands of actresses auditioned for the role. Emily Blunt, Marissa Tomei, and Uzo Aduba all auditioned for the role, but the role was given to Phillipa Soo, most likely because of her role of Chang'e in Over The Moon. Papyrus was a hard one, as his canon voice resembles something like Skeletor. Tom Hiddleston was considered for the role, but Domhnall Gleeson was ultimately cast as him. However, Leon was even harder to cast, due to him not appearing in the original game. They eventually chose Asher Angel for the role because of his strength of Billy Batson in the movie Shazam! By August 3 2022, Ralph Macchio, Justin Felbinger, Kate Miducci, Pierce Gagnon, Keiyan Lonsdale had joined the cast with YouTube stars Matthew Patrick appearing as cameos. Furthermore, Anderson employed his troupe of longtime collaborators, and so, Kara Hayward, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Saoirse Ronan, Jason Schwartzman, Willem Dafoe, Liev Schreiber, and Tilda Swinton all joined the cast after Anderson became director.

Music
The team recruited Alexandre Desplat to recreate the music originally by Fox, with him being the executive music producer. Desplat made the music so that it would recapture Fox's ability to "turn old songs into completely new experiences". Desplat had originally two prototypes of the soundtrack which where turned down by Fox before he made a suitable soundtrack that everyone liked.

Animation
The CGI animation was done by Blur Studio, who worked on a handful of films such as the opening title sequence for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, created all the space sequences in Avatar, and did the created the "Heaven and Hell" sequence for South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut. Tim Miller said that animating the film was a long process as the animation team didn't want to go down a similar path with the film adaptation of Sonic. First, they studied at the characters from the original game, and applied it to 3D. Second, they watched fan animations and films so they would have a better perspective on how to model and animate their bodies and faces. The animators didn't want to the monsters to look uncanny valley, and wanted to go through a more cartoony approach. And finally, they used motion capture to put the models into the film.

Marketing
The movie had it's premiere in the Berlin Film Festival in September 2, 2028, winning the fest's Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize. It then had it's Tokyo premiere in October 20 and it's worldwide premiere in Boston in October 21.

Sony and Legendary made up a campaign that would please fans and build hype for the movie. The campaign included merchandise by iam8bit, an art gallery hosted at the Louvre, and an cook book on how to make the movie's signature foods. In February 7, 2027, Macmillian Publishers Also, Fox, along with Flinthook developer Tribute Games and Annapurna Interactive, released Undertale: Reunion, a 16-bit remake of the original game, which has elements of the movie in it and was released alongside the film.