HEY, YOU GUYS! SORRY FOR THE CAPS, BUT I THINK I NEED TO SHOUT TO LET MYSELF BE HEARD OVER THE NOISE. WHAT NOISE? OH JUST THE SOUL DESTROYING SOUND OF HOLLYWOOD MERCILESSLY SCRAPING THE BOTTOM OF THE CREATIVE BARREL!
Ok, no more caps, you’ll just have to listen carefully. Especially since this story is ridiculous enough to be unbelievable. In what is sadly not a very late April Fool’s Day gag, Deadline is reporting that Sony Animation is developing an animated feature film based on Emojis. Yes, those smiley faces you use in text messages are getting a movie.
Just to add even more WTF-ness to this story, it’s revealed that Sony actually won a three-way bidding war against Warner Bros and Paramount to claim this pitch, beating out the other two studios with a seven-figure deal. SEVEN FIGURES. For smiley faces.
The folks at the centre of this pitch is Eric Siegel (Men at Work) and Anthony Leondis (Kung Fu Panda: Secrets of the Masters, B.O.O.: Bureau Of Otherworldly) who will co-write the script, while Leondis will direct. Leondis apparently shopped this pitch around to several studios, showing off storyboards for how the entire movie would play out. Clearly, he is a much more creative man than I am, because I just cannot see how a movie based around Emoji’s would even work. Then again, I would never have thought anybody could have made movies about LEGO and Battleship, and yet, here we are.
With Emojis being in the public domain, there are no underlying rights that need to be purchased, which has prompted Sony to move rapidly on this with CEO Tom Rothman apparently “aggressively” pushing for this himself. Another reason for his aggression, is because there is reportedly another pitch also based on emojis that will soon be shopped around to studios. Yes, Hollywood may be making two Emoji movies. And you thought this story couldn’t get any more ridiculous?
Last Updated: July 22, 2015
Alien Emperor Trevor
July 22, 2015 at 14:36
…
Unavengedavo
July 22, 2015 at 14:47
I couldn’t have said it better myself O_o
The Sten
July 22, 2015 at 15:23
…..ok
RinceThis
July 23, 2015 at 10:03
Leave it open for me…
Ranting Raptor
July 22, 2015 at 15:28
http://lastgif.com/gifs/17032.gif
RinceThis
July 23, 2015 at 10:04
🙂 🙂 ><