Ico (film)

Ico is an upcoming American-Japanese computer-animated fantasy adventure film based on the 2001 PlayStation 2 video game of the same name, co-produced by Universal Pictures, Columbia Pictures, Gingo Animation and Sony Pictures Animation, and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing.

Plot
The story is about a young boy named Ico who was born with horns, which his village considers a bad omen. Warriors lock him away in an abandoned fortress. During his explorations of the fortress, Ico encounters Yorda, the daughter of the castle's Queen. The Queen plans to use Yorda's body to extend her own lifespan. Learning this, Ico seeks to escape the castle with Yorda, keeping her safe from the shadow-like creatures that attempt to draw her back.

Production
A film adaption of Ico originally came about based on the success of the proposed film adaptation of Shadow of the Colossus being created by Misher Films in conjunction with Sony Pictures and Fumito Ueda. Following the November 2014 hacking of Sony's computers, emails between Sony Pictures co-chairman Amy Pascal and president Doug Belgrad were released, stating that Sony was in talks with Universal Studios and its flagship animation studio Gingo Animation about an animated film based on Ico. The emails also mentioned a possibility where Sony would handle the film's United States distribution while Universal would handle the film's international distribution.

Three years later, in September 2017, it was officially announced that Sony would be teaming up with Universal and Gingo to make an animated Ico film. Amy Pascal, Avi Arad, Kristine Belson, Mike Moon, Geo G., Michael Wildshill, and Ico creator Fumito Ueda will all co-produce the film. Due to the original game's darker and serious tone (which was rated T for Teen by the ESRB), the film will most likely receive a PG-13 rating (in the vein of the 2009 Tim Burton-produced animated film 9), making it the first Gingo film to receive that rating; all of that studio's previous films were rated PG with an exception of Paint World (1999) which was rated G.

Release
As of now, the release date for Ico is currently unknown, but it is likely that the film will occur on the release date for one of the four untitled films Gingo has on their schedule, in which the release dates are: May 21, 2021; March 4, 2022; March 3, 2023; and December 22, 2023.