Sony Wins Bidding War Against Two Other Studios For Emoji Movie


Emojis have long prevailed over the internet and the mobile world, and now it seems that they will be invading the movie world as well. According to BBC, Sony Pictures Animation has acquired the rights to make an emoji movie and outbid two other major studios – Paramount and Warner Bros.

According to reports, the emoji movie came about as The Lego Movie proved that just about anything can be turned into a movie.

Cinema Blend reports that the project was pitched by Anthony Leondis (Kung Fu Panda) and Eric Siegel (Men at Work) to the big studios. They came complete with storyboards and an idea of what the emoji movie will be about, but details are not available as of writing.

What made the idea of making an emoji movie interesting to the big studios is that emojis are popular worldwide, which will increase its chances of success, and no additional rights must be purchased to create an emoji movie. Deadline reported that the deal was near seven figures.

Emojis are smileys that originated in Japan. Emoji, when literally translated, means “picture character.” Emojis were originally available only in Japan. However, some sets were incorporated into Unicode, which allowed them to be utilized elsewhere. Emojis became popular worldwide in 2011 when they were included in Apple’s iOS.

When the news of the emoji movie came out, Jimmy Kimmel jokingly said on his late night show that he got his hands on the rough draft of the emoji movie. He then called out actress Brie Larson to join him for a cold reading of the script. You can watch the full clip of the segment below.

The news of an emoji movie was met by mixed reactions on Twitter.

In other emoji news, Star Wars recently released a few emojis, as reported by the Inquisitr, to promote the latest installment in the Star Wars franchise, The Force Awakens.

What do you think of the emoji movie? Do you think it will be a success just like The Lego Movie?

[Image via Senior Planet]

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