Emoji. Those little things have already dominated texting and social feeds. And now emoji are ready to take on their next big role — a movie.
Deadline reports that Sony Pictures Animation has won a bidding war (really) to make an animated film based on emoji. The deal is worth a reported seven figures.
I guess if we can have a movie based on Minions, this wasn’t far behind.
The movie will be co-written by Eric Siegel (TBS’ Men At Work) and Anthony Leondis (Kung Fu Panda: Secrets of the Masters), with Leondis directing. Sony outbid Warner Bros. and Paramount to score the emoji flick, according to Deadline.
“This appears to be a zeitgeist moment for these ideograms that hatched in Japan and have spread worldwide,” Deadline continues. “Unlike like, say Lego, there are also no underlying rights here to purchase, which makes this as much a catnip idea to Hollywood as public domain fairy tales that fuel so many blockbusters.”
Cute yellow balls bouncing around the screen and unlimited licensing opportunities? Emojis might give new meaning to box-office gold.
