Ben Schwartz to Voice ‘Sonic the Hedgehog’ in Upcoming Movie (EXCLUSIVE)

By Justin Kroll

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Ben Schwartz has been tapped to voice the title character in Paramount Pictures’ “Sonic the Hedgehog” movie, sources tell Variety.

James Marsden, Tika Sumpter, and Jim Carrey will also star in the live-action hybrid.

Jeff Fowler, who received an Oscar nomination for his 2005 animated short “Gopher Broke,” is helming the movie, which will blend live-action and CG elements. Neal H. Moritz is producing with “Deadpool” director Tim Miller executive producing, along with Toby Ascher.

Paramount has given “” a holiday-season release of Nov. 15, 2019. The project, based on the Sega video game franchise, had been in the works at Sony, but the studio let its film rights lapse and Paramount picked up the project in October. Sega launched the Sonic game in 1991 and has sold more than 360 million copies to date, including both packaged and digital games on consoles, tablets, and mobile.

The game features a hedgehog named Sonic on a quest to defeat Doctor Robotnik, a scientist who has imprisoned animals in robots and stolen magical Chaos Emeralds.

Schwartz is no stranger to voicing classic characters. He’s currently Dewey Duck on Disney Channel’s reboot of “Duck Tales” and will voice Leonardo in Nickelodeon’s “Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.” On the film side, Schwartz was most recently seen in “Blue Iguana,” and will appear next in the Kevin Hart-Tiffany Haddish comedy “Night School” and also has a new James Corden produced Showtime series where he will star opposite Jillian Bell.

He is repped by Haven Entertainment, WME, and Gang Tyre.

RELATED VIDEO: