Sony Pictures Animation to Develop ‘Emoji’ Animated Film

Deadline recently reported that the studio won a bidding war for an animated movie pitch based on theEmoji, a universal staple of social media interaction.

Sony Animation was one of three studios that were in the running (the other two were Paramount and Warner Bros). But as luck would have it, Sony was the most aggressive in locking down the deal (worth seven figures).

The pitch was co-written by Eric Segal and Anthony Leondis, with Leondis set to direct. According to the report, Leondis pitched the project to various studios, complete with storyboards for how the movie would play out.

This project is one of the bigger moves to be made by newly-minted SPA president Kristine Belson, who was given the go-ahead by Sony Pictures studio chief Tom Rothman to secure the deal. Former SPA president-turned-producer Michelle Raimo Kouyate will be producing the project.

While the project is obviously in early development, word has it that Sony Animation will be fast-tracking this one rather quickly, as the concept of Emoji isn’t tied down with any underlying rights to purchase, effectively making it a public domain property ripe for Hollywood (so much so that another pitch for an Emoji-based project will be shopped around shortly).

This is certainly one of the weirder projects to be added on to Sony Animation’s exhaustive slate of films that are in various stages of development. But in an age where The LEGO Movie was a critical and financial success, anything is possible.