Pepsiman (2024 film)

Pepsiman is an upcoming live action comedy/action movie based off the video game and Japanese mascot of the same name. To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Pepsiman game, Sony teamed up with PepsiCo to produce this movie.

Plot Summary
The film is an Origin story for Pepsiman and a story of a man's double life and trying to keep his Pepsiman identity from his girlfriend, while also trying to figure out what's best for them and for the world. The main antagonist is Professor O'lare, played by Willem Dafoe.

Cast
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson - Perry Simons / Pepsiman

Scarlett Johansson - Hannah Hawkins

Willem Dafoe - Derek O'lare

Mike Butters - Himself

Production
Production began in August 2022.

Release
Pepsiman the Movie was released on March 1st, 2024 worldwide, just 3 days before Pepsiman's 25th anniversary. The film was released to 4K UHD, Blu-Ray 3-D, Blu-Ray, and DVD ON June 1st, 2024, and on Netflix on July 1st 2024. At the end of production, executives from Sony held a meeting on rather to release this movie under the Columbia or Tristar banner. Originally, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayor was going to distribute the films in other territories under United Artist Releasing, with Universal Pictures distributing the film in the UK as part of the agreement. However, Sony, United Artists, and Universal could not agree on who gets what in profit shares. As a result, both MGM and Universal abandoned the project shortly before production began. Meanwhile back at the meeting, after 2 weeks of discussion, Sony executives voted unanimously to distribute the movie under Columbia Pictures.

Reception
Reception was quite mixed, with reviews ranging from the film being an unfunny and boring cash grab to a self-aware, entertaining story with realistic, relatable and likable characters. The film received a 48 on Metacritic, a 67% on Rotten Tomatoes, and a 7.0/10 on IMDb.

Trivia
-The film brought back Pepsiman ads, and the character is now Pepsi's well-known mascot globally.

-Pepsiman himself was achieved with CGI and Motion Capture of The Rock.

-A few months before the film's release, a Remastered version of the original game was released internationally for the PS5.

-James Rolfe makes a cameo in the movie as a running civilian in the final battle scene.

-The film won an Floscar award for "Biggest financial risk."