Have you ever texted one of those cute little winky face Emojis and thought, “Hey, that’s a movie I’d like to see. Emojis.”? Of course you haven’t, because that idea is terrible. But in Hollywood there’s no such thing as a bad idea (unless it’s original), as evidenced by the fact that Sony Pictures Animation has acquired a seven-figure pitch for a movie centering on the Emoji. And this wasn’t even some kind of effort to pick up scraps—Deadline reports that Warner Bros. and Paramount also bid on the project, as an Emoji movie is apparently something that people with power have a genuine desire to make.

Eric Siegel (Men at Work) will write the script and Anthony Leondis (Kung Fu Panda: Secrets of the Masters) is set to direct the untitled project. Leondis most recently helmed the DreamWorks Animation film B.O.O.: Bureau of Otherworldly Operations, but the picture was a victim of DWA’s restructured focus and is currently awaiting a release date.

How do you make a movie out of Emojis? Who the hell knows, but we’re getting one whether we want it or not. Granted, talented filmmakers were able to turn The LEGO Movie into something genuinely compelling and moving, but I have a hard time equating iconic toys with digital faces you send to people when you don’t feel like typing words.

There’s no IP connected to the Emoji (it’s in the public domain) and Deadline adds that another project is going to be shopped shortly, so we may even have a freaking race between dueling Emoji movies. Burn it down. Burn it all down.


emojis