Sony Once Canceled A Major Video Game Movie — After Releasing A Trailer

It's no secret that video game movies have been risky propositions for most of their history, though that's changed in more recent years with successful adaptations of big properties like Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog. But back in the mid-2010s, the genre was still mostly wildcards bending toward box office bombs. Unperturbed by this, Sony decided to get in on the business with a handful of movies adapting major PlayStation properties. Specifically, two hit action-platformer franchises from the PS2 era — "Ratchet & Clank" and "Sly Cooper" — were put in development as animated films.

The "Ratchet" adaptation was announced in 2013, and the "Sly" movie got a full teaser trailer a year later. Blockade Entertainment, animation studio Rainmaker Entertainment, and director Kevin Munroe and animation studio were attached to both. The projects even had some video game pedigree in the form of Blockade producer Brad Foxhoven, who previously worked on games like "Stranglehold" and "Def Jam: Fight for New York," as well as video game movies like Sony's 2014 "Heavenly Sword" adaptation and John Woo's canceled "Metroid" movie.

The "Sly Cooper" trailer featured redesigned characters in a CGI aesthetic that departed notably from the games' cel-shaded look. Still, fans were excited, and it seemed like a great match of IP and medium. "Sly Cooper" is sort of like "Ocean's Eleven" by way of "Zootopia," and its world is perfect for a family-friendly animated heist adventure. Unfortunately, "Ratchet & Clank" became an utter box-office failure upon release, grossing just $14.4 million on a budget of $20 million. That collapse led to a series of issues with the "Sly Cooper" production, and Rainmaker left the project in 2017, effectively killing the movie for good.

The "Sly Cooper" games are gems of the early 2000s, bringing a level of personality, narrative intrigue, and wit that was rare in the 3D platformer genre at the time. I'm a bit biased because the first "Sly" was one of the first video games I ever played at a Target demo kiosk for the PlayStation 2. Like many other fans, I was drawn in by the sharp character writing and stylish aesthetic. It also didn't hurt that the original trilogy of games from development studio Sucker Punch played incredibly well.

The premise of "Sly Cooper" is pretty simple: The titular protagonist is a raccoon criminal who comes from a long line of master thieves. But like Robin Hood, Sly only ever robs other, more evil crooks. Each game is broken up into a series of heists that you have to prepare for through various missions. In the later games, as Sly's gang grows, you take control of a range of characters with diverse skills, each of whom contributes something different to the heists. The games also embrace a healthy bit of globetrotting, with robberies taking place everywhere from Paris and Venice to the Australian Outback and China's Kunlun Mountains.

According to the synopsis released when the film was announced, it would have stayed pretty loyal to this setup and basically adapted the first game in the series. That game's main villain, a giant robotic bird called Clockwerk, was supposedly involved, and the movie would have shown an early version of the core gang — Sly, Bentley the Turtle, and Murray the Hippo — as they get they feet under themselves as a proper thieving crew.

"Sly Cooper" still feels ripe for an animated adaptation. After the movie fell apart, reports of a TV series came out, but that project soon met a similar fate. The premise of anthropomorphic animals conducting complex heists around the world in a comic book style is simple, but it also seems perfect for the modern animating landscape where studios like DreamWorks and Illumination have thrived. Unfortunately, the odds of the "Sly Cooper" movie still happening are basically zero.

Sony hasn't given up on its video game adaptations. Far from it, the company founded its own studio, PlayStation Productions, just to handle turning its IP into movies and shows. The fruits of that endeavor include video game movies like "Gran Turismo" and Tom Holland's "Uncharted," as well as shows like "Twisted Metal" and, most notably, the critically acclaimed "The Last of Us" series on HBO. Many other projects are currently in the works, including a film version of "Ghost of Tsushima," the flagship 2020 PlayStation hit developed by Sucker Punch, the same studio that made the "Sly" games.

That last detail may be the biggest reason why a "Sly Cooper" movie is unlikely to ever happen. The games themselves have been dormant for over a decade, with the last entry coming out in 2013 to a pretty meager reception. Sucker Punch has become one of Sony's most acclaimed studios, but that team has long moved onto other projects. We humble "Sly Cooper" fans have been left to wait and cross our fingers in the hopes that maybe one day, we'll get a new game.