Ico II

Ico II is an upcoming American 3D dark fantasy neo-noir adventure film produced by Sony Pictures Animation. The sequel to 2019's Ico which in turn is based on the 2001 video game of the same name.

Sony and del Toro confirmed production of the film would begin after the overperformance of the original film in China as well as after it's bigger than expected opening weekend in the United States. Guillermo del Toro was originally unable to return due to his commitments to Nightmare Alley and Pinocchio until the COVID-19 pandemic allowed him to freely come back to direct. Principal photography had begun by early July 2021 and concluded by mid-April 2022, with filming taking place in Atlanta like the original film as well as on live-location unlike the first film in Australia as well.

The film is scheduled to be released in the United States on February 3, 2023, in IMAX and 3D formats.

Synopsis
Four years after defeating Queen Michigore, Ico and Yorda who are now a couple live peacefully until a new clan of warriors titled "The Wicked" attack the village, its up to Ico and his team to stop them while undercovering new secrets of the village with help coming from a mysterious warrior from another land named Rayu and Ico's old friend Melvin.

Cast

 * Finn Wolfhard as Ico, A young boy with horns who is now the village prince.
 * Millie Bobby Brown as Yorda, The daughter of the late Queen Michigore who is Ico's girlfriend and the village princess.
 * Noah Jupe as Rex, a wander who has mutant abilities.
 * Nicole Kidman as Margli, a youthful elf who was the caretaker of Ico when he was a child.
 * Rihanna as Eva, a former slave of The Queen who is now the leader of the army of the village.
 * Noah Schnapp as Melvin the Wander, a youthful teenage orphan who wanders the world.
 * Dylan O'Brien as Larz, the more-known son of the Queen, and Yorda's older brother, who is heavily trained in kung fu and suffers anxiety.
 * Hailee Steinfeld as Mono, a young newly wedded woman who is wealthy and bullied Ico in the first film but ended up changing her ways and befriending him.
 * Daniel Kaluuya as Whizzaro, the music elf of the village who uses his piccolo to lure and harm enemies.
 * Jon Favreau as Sir Roderick, a clumsy knight who is the proclaimed hero of the village.
 * Keri Russell as Venex, a tomboy woman who is the head of the Guardian Knights.
 * Daniel Craig as King Harold Wilde, the new King of the village.
 * Dane DeHaan as Rayu, a mysterious warrior who hold magic abilities.
 * Liam Neeson as Pelagia, a monsterous Colossus creature.
 * Mahershala Ali as the voice of Argo, The magical stallion who is Ico's go-to for transportation to any destination.

Geoffrey Rush, Bill Skarsgård, Gary Sinise, and Sharon Stone have been cast in undisclosed roles. Additionally, Jason O'Mara reprises his role as Que, Argo's younger brother, while del Toro returns to play Willem Ford, a bounty hunter who was trying to kill Ico but now sides with Ico and his friends.

Laura Dern, singer Tim McGraw, and Stephen Fry have been all cast in undisclosed minor roles.

Development
After Sony and Disney broke their Marvel deal with Spider-Man in August of 2019, producer Ari Arad discussed with Sony around that same time about a possible trilogy of Ico films and discussions about a sequel to Ico ahead of the film's release that would feature the Wanderer character of Shadow of the Colossus. The inclusion of the character was later confirmed following the character being featured in the film, being played by Noah Schnapp and having the name of Melvin and a different Wanderer that was closer to the one featured in the game, being played by Noah Jupe. By the film's release, Sony later green-lit a sequel, with writers Philippa Boyens and Christina Hodson returning to write a screenplay. At the time of the start of production, director Guillermo del Toro was unable to return to directing the film, due to his commitments with the live-action remake of Pinocchio by Disney with Sony initially searching for a new director with the possibility of Andy Serkis directing which coincidentally would be the second Sony sequel he directs after Venom: Let There be Carnage. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which delayed production of the live-action remake, it gave the option for del Toro to return to direct the Ico sequel. At the time of the announcement, Finn Wolfhard, Millie Bobby Brown, Noah Jupe, Nicole Kidman, Rihanna, Noah Schnapp, and Mahershala Ali, were all slated to return to reprise their roles in the sequel, with Wolfhard and Brown having a three film contract.

In June 2021, del Toro expected filming to begin at the beginning of 2022. By August, Josh Brolin was believed to be in the running to portray an all new character named King Harold Wilde, who would have a major role in the film. Testing of actors for another new character, had also begun by October, with the shortlist of actors under consideration including Will Poulter, Ashton Sanders, Antony Starr, Timothée Chalamet, Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Pattison, and Christian Bale.

Writing
The first completed draft from Boyens and Hodson was expected around June 2020; multiple had been completed by January 2021. The pair felt a responsibility to explore how Ico and his friends live after defeating the Queen while getting prepared for a new threat that is way more darker than the Queen. By the next month, the studio was still not happy with the script, with Boyens and the writers "bunkered down ... trying to cross the finish line and create something everyone is excited to make". Goddard joined them as a consultant. Reese, Wernick, and Reynolds were credited for the script, the three having split the film's scenes between them before passing them around to be re-written by the others. Reese felt they were able to maintain "one voice" because of their long history with the character during development on the first film.

Ico II is set "more or less" years after the ending of the first, and focuses on "a coming of age story with love and violence" for Ico while going for a original story rather than based on a videogame like the first film was. Leitch felt that retaining these personal stakes was more compelling for audiences than trying to build the film around global stakes. The writers felt that the sequel was tonally similar to the first film, but wanted to explore a different theme by focusing on "friendship as well as values in life or death situations" as Ico himself is growing up and fully mastered the sword he stolen from the dungeon. An early idea was to have the film begin 10 years after the first and explore Ico as a whole grown up, but later defeated the purpose of the trilogy which was to "show Ico growing up from a young boy to a full on adventurer" similar to the way that the How to Train Your Dragon films were set up.

Earlier versions of the script included prominent roles for the characters Shihriax, but was later revealed to be cut due to Shihriax not having importance in the sequel as well as the character being locked in prison for his crimes. The villain Pelagia, from Shadow of the Colossus was also included in early drafts, but was cut due to the villain of the movie already being strong enough although it was later announced that he would be a secondary villain of the story with Liam Neeson confirmed to playing the character via motion-capture by April 2022. Boyens fought to include more aspects of Rex's backstory in the film after the writers chose to mostly ignore it due to it being convoluted, but later won and ended up having Rex's backstory being included. The film will also reference various Team Ico games as well.

Filming
Initial filming had begun by June 17, 2021, on a blue-screen stage in Atlanta, like the first film with IMAX cameras being used once again. Principal photography began in Atlanta, on June 26, under the working title Banana Boat. Some sequences, were filmed live on set in Australia such as some major battle scenes unlike the original film with motion-capture being used once again. Jonathan Sela served as cinematographer for the film. At the end of June, Boyens revealed that Daniel Craig had been cast in the film. The next month, Millie Bobby Brown said that he found the sequel to be more darker than the first film, and that "it's not going to be the same movie in a same but darker location [like Avengers: Endgame]. It's got different stakes, different things happen, some pretty tragic, brief scares and dark tones happens in the first part of the film, in the beginning, and the rest of the film is kind of dealing with that." By then, Ali had been working with del Toro on set, and expected to continue contributing to Argo through to April 2022. Unlike the first film, Wolfhard and Brown both didn't experience any scheduling conflicts with Stranger Things, which allowed them to be on set more.

Animation and visual effects
Like the first film, Sony Pictures Imageworks, who does the animation, also provides the visual effects, which were supervised by Robert Legato, Elliot Newman and Adam Valdez. The film utilizes "virtual-reality tools", per Visual Effects Supervisor Rob Legato. Virtual Production Supervisor Girish Balakrishnan said on his professional website that the filmmakers used motion capture and VR/AR technologies, with the production team combining VR technology with cameras in order to film the remake in a VR-simulated environment. Along with the live-action actors, animated characters via motion capture and through the huge team of visual effects were used to give the film a realistic look similar to Lord of the Rings.

Post-production
Sony revealed in November that the film was technically untitled at that point, and not officially known as Ico II as had been assumed; the studio was temporarily referring to the film as The Untitled Ico Sequel. Also in January, the film's release was moved up to May 19, 2023. And later by May of 2022, it was moved up to, February 3, 2023, which is it's current release date.

Coming soon!

Release
The film is scheduled to be released on February 3, 2023 in IMAX and 3D formats after previously being scheduled for November 23, 2022 and May 19, 2023.

Marketing
The film's official teaser trailer was attached to IMAX screenings of Stella: An Angry Birds Movie and was later released online on August 23, 2022. The teaser trailer received 152 million views in its first 24 hours of release.

Home media
In April 2021, Sony signed deals with Netflix and Disney for the rights to their 2022 to 2026 film slate, following the films' theatrical and home media windows. Netflix signed for exclusive "pay 1 window" streaming rights, which is typically an 18-month window and included the sequel to Araceli; this deal built on an existing output deal that Netflix had signed with Sony Pictures Animation in 2014. Disney signed for "pay 2 window" rights for the films, which would be streamed on Disney+ and Hulu as well as broadcast on Disney's linear television networks.

Sequel
As stated in plans in 2018, a trilogy of Ico films was announced with a later third and final Ico film being green-lit depending on the performance of the second film. Wolfhard has stated himself that he predicts it to be a "Dark Knight Rises-like trilogy ending capper" with it expected to be the darkest film out of the trilogy as well as being the longest.

Additional films
Team Ico and PlayStation Productions have teamed up to announce that other games from Team Ico would be adapted and various spin-offs of the main Ico trilogy would be made as well.