From your cell phone to the Cineplex: Sony Pictures Entertainment announced Wednesday (May 15) that it won distribution rights to an “Angry Birds” animated film, which is planned for release July 1, 2016.
Rovio Entertainment is developing, producing and financing a 3-D film based on the game, which the company first released in 2009. Set to be produced by John Cohen and David Maisel, who previously shepherded “Despicable Me” and “Iron Man” into theaters, respectively, the film will further develop the world within the game after launching the “Angry Birds Toons” animated series earlier in 2013.
No plot details have yet been released, but one can’t help but wonder if the filmmakers will create an origin story to reveal precisely what got those birds so angry in the first place.
“Angry Birds” previously enjoyed movie crossovers with “Rio,” which spawned its own version of the game, and in which the Birds are the Rebel Alliance and their Bad Piggy nemeses are the Empire. There’s no word yet whether director J.J. Abrams will incorporate elements of “Angry Birds” into his upcoming 2015 film “Star Wars Episode VII” to serve as a prequel for the animated film. The decision to have Sony distribute the film also paves the way for a cross-studio collaboration with “Rio 2,” which is scheduled for release in 2014.
What ‘Star Wars Episode VII’ Can Learn From ‘Angry Birds: Star Wars.’
About the forthcoming adaptation, Maisel and Cohen said, “We are very excited to join with Sony Pictures in presenting this movie to the world in 2016 and we will have many more announcements as we begin production in the coming months.”
No Comments