EXCLUSIVE: In a deal near seven figures, Sony Pictures Animation won a three-studio auction for an animated movie pitch centering on the Emoji, those lovable round headed figures that are as much a staple of social media correspondence as adverbs and adjectives. The project will be co-written by Eric Siegel and Anthony Leondis, with the latter directing the feature. Leondis pitched the project around to studios, with storyboards for how the movie would play out. Three studios bid–I’ve heard Warner Bros and Paramount were the others–but none more aggressively than Sony. It’s a big project for SPA president Kristine Belson, who got a quick decision from studio chief Tom Rothman to move aggressively. Michelle Raimo Kouyate is producing. This appears to be a zeitgeist moment for these ideograms that hatched in Japan and have spread worldwide. Unlike like, say Lego, there are also no underlying rights here to purchase, which makes this as much a catnip idea to Hollywood as public domain fairy tales that fuel so many blockbusters. I’ve heard that another pitch is going to be shopped shortly, so there might be reason for Sony Animation to move quickly.
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Leondis is director of Kung Fu Panda: Secrets of the Masters, and he most recently completed the DreamWorks Animation feature B.O.O.: Bureau Of Otherworldly Operations. That film, which features a voice cast including Bill Murray, Melissa McCarthy, Matt Bomer and Seth Rogen, has been awaiting a release date, pulled from the schedule as DWA went through a restructuring. Now, Leondis has another project to throw himself into. WME reps Leondis. Siegel is a writer and actor who has sold several shows to Fox and NBC and was most recently as producer on the TBS series Men At Work. He’s also consulting producer on Family Tools at ABC. This is his first movie sale and he’s repped by APA, New Wave and Lichter Grossman.
Watch on Deadline
This comes as Sony this Friday rolls out Pixels, the Chris Columbus-directed animated/live action mix that stars Adam Sandler and some of the most popular videogame characters come to life, including Pac Man.
Idea was posted on Facebook 29 May. So who is paying to who?
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10205872717368494&set=a.10200549934502249.1073741826.1575133129&type=1&theater
I’m picturing a bunch of you guys sitting at Coffee Bean with your MacBook Airs and your copy of McKee wasting your day writing obnoxious comments on Deadline because you have no fucking idea how to finish Act 2 of your “amazing”, “original”, “oscar-winning” screenplay. I know one of the guys who wrote this pitch. I know they spent months working on this idea and this story. I know they exist in the real world and are aware of stupid Hollywood movies and killed themselves trying to create something original and interesting while still acknowledging and accepting the limitations studios have in making and distributing movies. But apparently you all for know so much better how to get quality movies sold and produced. Make sure to remind your parents of that when you ask for rent money.
Well said Anthony.
A young emoji of a jack-o-lantern named Jack dreams of being popular year-round like the cool ideograms Smiling Face, Grinning Face, and Smiling Face with Open Mouth and Tightly Closed Eyes.
From the “director” of igor.
Enough said.
Time to hire a new head of Sony Animation. I hope Sony’s board of directors is reading this.
I quit