Sony Smiles for Emoji Movie
How much would you pay for an Emoji? iTunes may offer it for free but it seems that Sony Pictures Animation has paid near seven figures for the rights to an Emoji movie in a bidding war against Warner Bros. and Paramount. The deal, sealed yesterday, means that Sony has acquired the rights to an Emoji themed movie written by Eric Siegel and Anthony Leondis, with the latter directing.
Earlier this year, Emoji was ranked the fastest growing language in the UK and in 2014, the BBC did a weekly news round-up written specifically in Emoji. Since it’s worldwide release in 2011, Emoji’s have become incredibly popular and so it’s no surprise that they would be expanding their name however to a movie? Most people did not expect this. But this deal didn’t even come from the Emoji company! As Emoji’s are in the public domain, they are free for anyone to use or make money off in any way they want and so Siegel and Leondis have seized the opportunity with both hands.
Leondis has quite a filmography behind him. Starting out as a character designer on The Lion King 2, he quickly moved to Dreamworks where he worked as a story artist on titles such as The Prince of Egypt and The Road to El Dorado before returning back to Disney in 2004 for Home on the Range. Leondis got his big break soon after this when he made his directorial debut on the Lilo and Stitch sequel. He later traded the big studios for smaller studio, Sparx Animation Studio to direct the 2008 film – Igor, which was his first theatrical film. But soon after, he returned to Dreamworks where he directed the short – Kung Fu Panda: Secrets of the Masters and then stepped up to direct the delayed B.O.O.: Bureau of Otherworldly Operations. So he clearly has a lot of experience in both the animation and directing field.
But should we be worried? Does this Emoji movie mean that studios will be desperate to make movies about anything? Just because The Lego Movie turned out well, does that mean this might too? Let us know what you think below, on Twitter or Facebook.