If you read our earlier post about Rob McElhenney directing a Minecraft movie and thought “how can they make a movie out of a game that has no real set plot?” then this story is really going to have you scoffing: we’re getting an Emoji movie.
Yup, that’s right, those (primarily) little yellow faces you send each other on Facebook and in texts is being used as the basis for a movie. We promise you we’re not just making this up…
Deadline reports that Sony Pictures Animation won a fierce bidding war with Warner Bros. and Paramount for the rights to the Emoji adaptation, paying an unspecified seven figures for the privilege. It’s hard to believe that studios would be fighting over such a project, do they have some research that proves people are chomping at the bit for a movie about a smiley face?
The studio is evidently wasting no time with this one as they’ve already found their co-writer and director in the form of Anthony Leondis. He directed DreamWorks Animation’s B.O.O.: Beaureau of Otherwordly Operations, which is still awaiting a release date after being pulled from the schedule, as well as Kung Fu Panda short film Secret of the Masters. He’s co-writing the Emoji flick with Eric Siegel, a TV producer, writer and actor from such shows as Men At Work and Family Tools.
An interesting little nugget of information about the story is that, unlike, say, LEGO, there are no strict underlying rights to the whole Emoji thing which means we’re probably going to see more than one project involving them; in fact, another pitch is expected in Hollywood soon so Sony will be moving fast on this one.
What do you think: could an Emoji movie work, with the blank canvas it would give the writers/director? Or is it a dumb cash-grab of an idea?
Sources: Deadline and Shutterstock (image)