Sony Pictures Animation must certainly be enjoying how people are taking in the Pac-Man-heavy marketing for this weeks’ Pixels (and, to the film’s mild credit, he is the best part of it), because the suits in charge have ponied up the near seven figures to have some other yellow-faced friends transition to the big screen. In a heated three-studio audition, Sony won the right to have their banner placed in front of an Emoji movie.
With Warner Bros and Paramount reported to be the other two studios vying to get the expressive, social media/text message-based personalities their cinematic due, it’s apparently a ripe opportunity to take this property (?) to the next level, as the Japan-hatched ideograms don’t subside themselves to any pesky rights, making them essentially free-reign when it comes to marketing, promoting and all that jazz. Does it matter that they’ll have to take the extra route to transpire an hour-and-a-half storyline to make it work? Well, apparently not.
Eric Siegel and Anthony Leondis are already attached to write the animated feature, with the latter also tapped to direct. If the filmmaker’s name doesn’t ring a bell, it’s because his last feature, DreamWorks Animation‘s B.O.O.: Bureau of Otherworldly Operations, is tied up at the studio at the moment without a release date or marketing stream planned, despite reports claiming he’s got the picture completely in the can, and his only other credits are 2008’s forgettable Igor and the direct-to-DVD Disney sequel Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch. Siegel, meanwhile, is a sitcom writer behind a handful of episodes from various one-season-and-done series like In Case of Emergency and Roommates. This is all to say, they don’t necessarily have the same firepower Warner Bros. had when they hired Phil Lord and Chris Miller to shepherd The Lego Movie.
For obvious reasons, it’s easier to get more pessimistic about a project like this even when other direct cash grabs like Angry Birds and a Hello Kitty movie come on the horizon near the same time. It all comes down to character. It’s an unenviable task Siegel and Leondis have on their hands. I can barely stretch my imagination to figure out how you can make these faces sustain any engaging personalities, let alone what story can be encompassed around them to make them interesting for anyone over the age of 4. But hey, it’s not my job. If they have what it takes and can pull it off, all the power to them. But I don’t see my baffled expression directed towards this feature changing shades anytime soon. [Deadline]
