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The Emoji Movie ranks as the fourth most-watched movie on Netflix globally for the week of August 12 15. The film has amassed 11.2 million hours viewed and 7.7 million total views despite having earned mostly negative reviews upon its theatrical release in 2017. The Emoji Movie may offer little of value to adults, but families with young children can drive success in theaters and on streaming.

The Emoji Movie has become a major hit on Netflix, despite its negative reputation. Directed by Tony Leondis, The Emoji Movie was released in 2017 with a story that follows Gene (T.J. Miller), a multi-expressional emoji, as he embarks on an adventure to become a single-expression emoji. The film was famously lambasted by critics upon its release, and it currently has only a 6% score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Now, however, data shared by Netflix reveals that The Emoji Movie is the fourth most-watched movie on the streamer globally for the...

The Lilo & Stitch movie franchise, also referred to as Stitch, was created by the Disney franchise in 2002 with the release of its animated film directed and written by Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois. This family-favorite movie has been delighting audiences ever since!

The series follows the escapades of two characters: Lilo Pelekai, an orphaned Hawaiian girl voiced by Daveigh Chase, and Stitch, created initially as Experiment 626, a little blue alien and adopted by Lilo. Both are mischievous beings who make for a funny duo full of eccentric adventures.

If you love comedy and animation, then the Lilo & Stitch movie series is perfect!

Here is a list of all the films in this franchise in order:

All the “Lilo and Stitch” Movies in Order of Release Date Lilo and Stitch (2002) Stitch! The Movie (2003) Lilo and Stitch 2: Stitch has a Glitch (2005) Leroy and Stitch (2006) Lilo and Stitch (2002)

“Lilo & Stitch...

The Emoji Movie "won" four Razzies, including Worst Picture, as the 38th Annual Golden Raspberry Awards honored 2017's worst films and performances on the day before the Oscars.

The animated film – which Peter Travers wrote in his Rolling Stone review "isn't a steaming pile of poop – but it's close" – also earned Worst Screenplay, Worst Director (Tony Leondis) and Worst Screen Combo ("Any two obnoxious emojis").

Tom Cruise finally took home his first Razzie for Worst Actor thanks to his role in The Mummy, the star's first win in three nominations...

The "winners" for the 38th annual Razzie Awards are dominated by emojis.

The Emoji Movie took the lead in this year's race and “won” four categories, including worst picture, worst screenplay, worst screen combo and worst director for Tony Leondis.

Fifty Shades Darker followed with two wins, including worst supporting actress for Kim Basinger and worst sequel.

Despite Mel Gibson having won the Razzie Redeemer award, last year, for his Oscar-nominated film Hacksaw Ridge, the actor failed to escape this year's winners list. Gibson received an award for worst supporting actor for his rebellious father role in Daddy's Home 2.

Though...

Two sequels, “Transformers: The Last Knight” and “Fifty Shades Darker,” lead the nominations for the 38th annual Razzie Awards with nine and eight bids respectively, followed by “The Mummy” with seven. These kudos, honoring the worst of moviemaking, will be handed out by the Golden Raspberry Foundation on March 3 (one day before the Oscars) in a virtual ceremony.

The Razzies front-runner for Worst Picture is “The Emoji Movie,” which would be the first animated film to “win” that award. We are predicting that Tom Cruise (“The Mummy”) and Jennifer Lawrence (“Mother!”) will be cited for their bad acting in starring roles while Russell Crowe and Kim Basinger will be similarly singled out for their ham-fisted performances in featured turns in “The Mummy” and “Fifty Shades Darker.”

See the full list of 2018 contenders below and then watch those rascals at the Razzies make merry with all these potential “winners” on their YouTube channel here.

2017-07-28T06:52:33-07:00Critics: 'Emoji Movie' Won't Generate Many Smileys

Reviews for the Tony Leondis-directed Emoji Movie are flooding in, and it's not looking good for the animated comedy.

The film follows the adventures of Gene (voiced by T.J. Miller), an emoji with the unusual capability of showing infinite emotions, as he seeks to become a "normal" emoji.

According to The Hollywood Reporter's John DeFore, any comparison to similar animated fare such as The Lego Movie or Inside Out isn't earned here. "Given the right combination of inspiration, intelligence and gifted artists, any dumb thing can be turned into an enjoyable film," he writes. "But Tony Leondis' The Emoji Movie, a very, very dumb thing, comes nowhere near that magic combination. It is fast and colorful enough to attract young kids, but offers nearly nothing to their parents."

DeFore found particular issue with the script,...

Can you build a whole animated feature about emojis living inside the smartphone of a teen named Alex (Jake T. Austin)? It's a stretch. But The Emoji Movie, expected to kill at the box-office and be killed by critics, has a few tricks up its animated sleeve. Before the jacked-up antics get to be too much, director Tony Leondis and co-writers Erich Siegel and Mike White get in a few satiric licks at a technology we've all come to call home.

The plot? It spins around Gene (voiced with twisted...

This corporate clickbait exercise pretends to be a film for kids, but is actually trying to cross-sell apps to a tween audience

Children should not be allowed to watch The Emoji Movie. Their impressionable brains simply aren’t set up to sift through the thick haze of corporate subterfuge clouding every scene of this sponsored-content post masquerading as a feature film. Adults know enough to snort derisively when, say, an anthropomorphic high-five drops a reference to popular smartphone game Just Dance Now (available for purchase in the App Store, kids!), but young children especially are more innocent and more vulnerable.

The Emoji Movie is a force of insidious evil, a film that feels as if it was dashed off by an uninspired advertising executive. The best commercials have a way of making you forget you’re being pitched at, but director Tony Leondis leaves all the notes received from his brand partners in full view.

Reviews for the Tony Leondis-directed Emoji Movie are flooding in, and it's not looking good for the animated comedy. 

The film follows the adventures of Gene (voiced by Silicon Valley alum T.J. Miller), an emoji with the unusual capability of showing infinite emotions, as he seeks to become a "normal" emoji. 

According to The Hollywood Reporter's John DeFore, any comparison to similar animated fare such as The Lego Movie or Inside Out isn't earned here. "Given the right combination of inspiration, intelligence and gifted artists, any dumb thing can be turned into an enjoyable film," he writes. "But Tony Leondis' The...

Art can spring from many motivations. According to director Tony Leondis, The Emoji Movie is “personal.” Central character Gene (T.J. Miller), the inexplicably named “meh” emoji, must go on a journey of self-discovery and learn to accept himself, which chimes with Leondis’s own childhood, growing up gay in a religious household. (His father was a Greek Orthodox priest, no less). After viewing the final product, Miller’s reasoning for making the movie sounds more believable: “Sony knows we down to get motherfucking paid globally.”

Sporting the precise same young-outsider-learns-to-accept-himself-and-becomes-a-hero plot as every other family animated film, The Emoji Movie takes place in “Textopolis,” where emojis maintain their assigned expression with no deviation, waiting to be called up for their on-screen appearance as needed. Gene can’t keep a “meh” face and screws up his first time at-bat, prompting backstabbing head boss Smiler (Maya Rudolph) to order his deletion ...

Here's what you tell yourself when you accept an assignment to review a cartoon about emoji: "Remember what you thought when you heard about The Lego Movie? That it was the most shameless bit of advertising-as-entertainment you could imagine, the nadir of Hollywood's intellectual-property dependence, and couldn't possibly be worth seeing? Remember how incredibly wrong you were?"

You were wrong then. Given the right combination of inspiration, intelligence and gifted artists, any dumb thing can be turned into an enjoyable film. But Tony Leondis' The Emoji Movie, a very, very dumb thing, comes nowhere near that...

“The Emoji Movie” might seem like a brazenly cynical cash grab that only exists because a Hollywood studio saw an opportunity to brand the most universal human language since the invention of math (apologies to Esperanto), but Sony Pictures Animation’s big new blockbuster has represented something very positive since the start of this summer movie season: hope. Specifically, the hope that — for 90 beautiful minutes — Hollywood would spirit us away to a cinematic world that was somehow actually worse than real life. What a gift it would be in July 2017 to leave the multiplex and actually come up on our way back to reality, to feel the faint nausea of ascension for the first time all year and be reminded that it’s still possible for things to get better. Alas, blind optimism is a dangerous game in this day and age, and there is no such respite to be found here.

2017-07-27T06:44:36-07:00Can 'The Emoji Movie' Beat 'Dunkirk'?

If moviegoers ever wanted to hear Sir Patrick Stewart voice the poop emoji, they are about to get their chance.

This weekend, Sony Pictures Animation unfurls The Emoji Movie, based on the popular ideograms that have become their own, popular language. But it remains to be seen whether The Emoji Movie can pass up Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk, which opened to $50.3 million last weekend, and win the weekend.

The Emoji Movie is tracking to debut in the $25 million-$27 million, although Sony is being more conservative in suggesting $20 million.

Tony Leondis directed the original film, about an emoji named Gene who, unlike the other inhabitants of the city Textpolis, has multiple expressions. Determined to be normal, he and his pals embark on an adventure to find the code that will fix Gene, only to...

If moviegoers ever wanted to hear Sir Patrick Stewart voice the poop emoji, they are about to get their chance.

This weekend, Sony Pictures Animation unfurls The Emoji Movie, based on the popular ideograms that have become their own, popular language. But it remains to be seen whether The Emoji Movie can pass up Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk, which opened to $50.3 million last weekend, and win the weekend.

The Emoji Movie is tracking to debut in the $25 million-$27 million, although Sony is being more conservative in suggesting $20 million.

Tony Leondis directed the original film, about an emoji named...

The Emoji Movie's Patrick Stewart on switching it up to voice a character called Poop The Emoji Movie's Patrick Stewart on switching it up to voice a character called Poop Bob Strauss - Cineplex Magazine7/25/2017 9:28:00 Am

Verily, is there an English actor more worthy of respect than Sir Patrick Stewart?

The distinguished Shakespearean, birthed in Yorkshire in 1940, has wowed on the stage his whole career and continues to do so, most recently in a production of Harold Pinter’s No Man’s Land that he and his buddy Ian McKellen mounted on Broadway and then brought across the pond to London.

Before that, his portrayal of cerebral starship captain Jean-Luc Picard in "Star Trek: The Next Generation" was a major factor in ensuring the longevity of one of pop culture’s greatest science-fiction franchises.

Speaking of franchises, the X-Men movies, which set the template for this century’s superhero genre,...

In celebration of the fourth annual World Emoji Day (@WorldEmojiDay) on Monday, July 17, audiences can get excited for the film by getting their tickets early – and Sony Pictures Animation is joining the fun by orchestrating a series of events and appearances as we all salute to the emoji, the means of communication that crosses borders and language.

On World Emoji Day, tickets will go on sale for The Emoji Movie. MovieTickets.com continues their multi-picture partnership with Sony with a site-wide takeover for the film, announcing the start of advance ticketing on the site, newsletter and social media. Advance tickets will also be available on Fandango and Atom Tickets.

Commenting on the announcement, Tony Leondis, co-writer/director of The Emoji Movie, said, “Emojis help us express ourselves in ways we don’t have time to express, or don’t have the forethought to express, or are afraid to express – or...

Screen Rant interviews The Emoji Movie director Tony Leondis about the film's inspiration and developing a movie out of the concept of emojis.

The Emoji Movie opens on July 28

The post Cs Interviews: Emoji Movie Director Tony Leondis appeared first on ComingSoon.net.

"They're making a movie about emojis? How is that going to work?" If you thought that when first hearing about Sony's The Emoji Movie, you're not alone. The film's star, T.J. Miller, wondered the same thing when he was first approached to lend his voice to its lead character. But after chatting with the minds behind the animated movie, including director Tony Leondis and producer Michelle Raimo Kouyate (Silver Linings Playbook, Hotel Transylvania), Miller realized...

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Sofia Vergara is breathing life into everyone’s favorite party-girl emoji, voicing the Flamenco Dancer in the upcoming The Emoji Movie.

Her character, debuted exclusively on People, is a take on the familiar dancing woman in the red dress from your keyboard, updated with Vergara’s animated likeness. The Vergara version of the emoji sports a black dress and a clenches a red rose between her teeth.

“I play the Flamenco Dancer,” Vergara tells People of her character, who is the life of the party in the movie. “And she is always doing the Flamenco. She does it in the morning when she gets up,...

Hacker emoji Jailbreak (Ilana Glazer), exuberant Gene (T.J. Miller) and his handy best friend Hi-5 (James Corden) embark on the app-venture of a lifetime in Sony Pictures Animation’s Emojimovie: Express Yourself, in theaters summer 2017.

Making good on the commitment to increase overall output while continuing to offer its distinctive mix of family films, Sony Pictures Animation today released the project details on its upcoming roster of titles through 2018, along with additional highly anticipated future feature film projects, including one from Pulitzer Prize-winner Lin-Manuel Miranda.

Kristine Belson, President of Sony Pictures Animation, says, “We are proud of the artist-driven titles we have coming to the marketplace. The abundance, variety and quality of the features are a testament to the wealth of creative talents who call Sony Pictures Animation their home.”

Smurfs: The Lost Village (April 7, 2017 release)

Newly announced voice cast includes: Michelle Rodriguez (SmurfStorm), Ellie Kemper (SmurfBlossom), Ariel Winter (SmurfLily...

Sony Pictures Animation, which has fallen on hard times in recent years, highlighted diversity and female empowerment as part of its comeback at Wednesday’s slate preview in Culver City. The biggest news was confirmation that Miles Morales, the mixed race web-slinging teen (African-American and Hispanic), will star in the untitled “Spider-Man” feature coming December 21, 2018.

Morales, created by Brian Michael Bendis and Sara Pichelli to succeed the late Peter Parker in the comics, has already become a TV animation staple on Disney Xd’s “Ultimate Spider-Man: Web Warriors” (initially voiced by Donald Glover).

The animated “Spider-Man” marks a return to Spa for Phil Lord and Chris Miller (“Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs”), who directed “The Lego Movie” and are currently making the “Han Solo” standalone “Star Wars” feature.

In a pre-recorded video message from London, Lord said, “What inspired us the most is that anyone can wear the mask.

Want to know how to waste good talent? Cast Patrick Stewart as the voice of a piece of shit in The Emoji Movie. Look, I love Patrick Stewart, the guy's awesome, but just because he's providing the voice of poop emoji isn't going to entice me to see this terrible, awful idea for a movie.

Hollywood has a history of cashing in on the popularity of certain trends and then making stupid-ass movies out of them. T.J. Miller stars in The Emoji Movie as an an emoji born with multiple expressions. He ends up teaming with the notorious code-breaker Jailbreak (Ilana Glazer) and they embark on an adventure through a teenager's phone.

Director Tony Leondis briefly talked about the film recently, saying:

"I know what you’re thinking — Wtf. What is their story? Emoji are expected to be one thing their whole lives. So I thought, what if one was born with not one,...

Throughout his decorated career, Sir Patrick Stewart has amassed a collection of truly memorable roles. We’ve had the great Professor X – a role that Stewart will soon reprise for James Mangold’s Logan – Star Trek‘s Jean-Luc Picard and, more recently, Darcy Banker, the neo-Nazi skinhead seen in Jeremy Saulnier’s excellent Green Room. But in 2017, Stewart will lend his voice to Sony’s Emoji Movie.

He’ll play Poop – no, really – and we understand that Stewart has climbed on board alongside a whole host of newcomers including Jennifer Coolidge, Bridesmaids alum Maya Rudolph as Smiler, and Jake T. Austin as the human character of Sony’s twee animation. Anthony Leondis is at the helm for The Emoji Movie, which largely centers around Gene (Deadpool’s T.J. Miller), a sprightly symbol who has essentially been rendered the outcast of Textopolis after displaying more than one emotion. In order to course-correct his internal code,...

Sir Patrick Stewart just landed a literal shit role: The dignified actor, best known for his trademark work in Star Trek: The Next Generation and the X-Men franchise, scooped up the part of Poop in the upcoming Emoji Movie, Sony Pictures announced Wednesday.

The company revealed the casting via Twitter, writing, "So excited to announce the distinguished @SirPatStew as Poop in the #EmojiMovie," along with a picture of Stewart's character, a charming pile of feces wearing a bow-tie.

He ain’t no...

Sony Pictures Animation unveiled its slate through 2018 on Wednesday including new voice cast on previously announced features.

Kicking off the roster on April 7 is Smurfs: The Lost Village with new voice cast members Julia Roberts, Michelle Rodriguez, Ellie Kemper and Ariel Winter.

Gordon Ramsay is among a line-up of cameo performers alongside Gabriel Iglesias, Tituss Burgess, Jeff Dunham, Jake Johnson and director Kelly Asbury.

Previously announced voice cast includes Demi Lovato, Rainn Wilson, Joe Manganiello, Jack McBrayer, Danny Pudi and Mandy Patinkin.

The Emoji Movie is scheduled to open on August 4 and features new voice cast members Jennifer Coolidge, Maya Rudolph, Jake T. Austin and Patrick Stewart.

Previously announced voice cast includes T.J. Miller (pictured), James Corden, Ilana Glazer and Steven Wright. Tony Leondis directs.

The Star is due to arrive on November 10 and includes voice talent by Steven Yeun, Kelly Clarkson, Aidy Bryant, Keegan-Michael Key, Kristin Chenoweth, Anthony Anderson, Gabriel Iglesias, [link...

When Sony Pictures Animation first drafted up plans for The Emoji Movie, the Internet was suitably perplexed. How could an audience expect to care about a host of digital characters that are, by definition, one-note personifications of an emotion, or a symbol, or, you know, poop?

To be fair, similar questions were raised in anticipation of The Lego Movie and this year’s Trolls, and Sony has crafted something of a workaround in Gene (T.J. Miller), a symbol whose ability to express more than one emotion renders him the outcast of Textopolis, a bustling digital utopia in which much of Anthony Leondis’ animation is set to take place. Think Zootopia, only overrun by sprightly pixels as opposed to an entire animal kingdom. And so, what follows is an “app-venture” like no other, after Gene is left with little choice but to buddy up with Hi-5 (James Corden) and a stealthy...

Sony Pictures Animation has launched the world’s first-ever vertical movie trailer designed especially for mobile users supporting the highly anticipated family comedy The Emoji Movie, the computer animated adventure that unlocks the never-before-seen secret world inside your smartphone. For the first 24 hours, the trailer will be optimized for mobile users and best viewed on the phone.

Mobile moviegoers can see the teaser trailer for The Emoji Movie at http://bit.ly/EmojiTeaseFB and an extended version in theaters nationwide Today.

Simultaneously, the studio announced that it is teaming up with the most popular apps on your phone to bring The Emoji Movie to life in a way that every mobile user will recognize. The teaser trailer will launch with these partners and others equaling a social footprint of nearly 700 million followers.

The teaser trailer features the vocal performance of Steven Wright, who joins the cast as Mel Meh, the father of T.

Chances are, when you heard that Sony Pictures Animation was making The Emoji Movie, you assumed that it would be a shameless marketing strategy for various mobile phone applications. While the first teaser trailer doesn’t exactly confirm this, it does nothing to dispel that expectation, either.

Written and directed by Anthony Leondis (Igor), and co-written by Eric Siegel (Men At Work), The Emoji Movie promises an adventurous ride through your favourite digital landscapes – but whether the finished product will deliver on that promise is not clear from this promotional footage.

For more on what to expect, you can consult the official plot summary below:

“The Emoji Movie unlocks the never-before-seen secret world inside your smartphone. Hidden within the messaging app is Textopolis, a bustling city where all your favorite emojis live, hoping to be selected by the phone’s user. In this world, each emoji has only one facial...

Where words fail, emojis speak.

Emojis have become a part of our daily lives, using the small digital images to express emotions and ideas via texts or social media. Now the animated icons are hitting the big screen in Sony’s “Emoji Movie,” a thrilling adventure into the land of Textopolis.

The first teaser trailer for the upcoming CG animated movie doesn’t tell us much about the plot, rather it introduces viewers to “Meh” (Steven Wright), an unenthusiastic emoji who is “oh-so-excited” to announce the film.

Directed by Tony Leondis, who co-wrote the script with Eric Siegel and Mike White, “Emoji Movie” features a great voice cast including T.J. Miller, “Broad City’s” Ilana Glazer and James Corden. The story is set in the messaging app Textopolis, where every emoji has one facial expression, except Gene (Miller), who was born without a filter and has multiple expressions. Determined to...

So yeah... this is a thing. Below you'll find the first trailer for Sony's The Emoji Movie, which features the voice talents of Deadpool's T.J. Miller, late night talk show host James Corden, and Broad City star Ilana Glazer among others. In it, the "Meh" emoji (standup comedian Steven Wright) introduces himself and promotes the movie in a very enthusiastic manner. I guess this is mildly amusing stuff, and to be fair, nobody thought The Lego Movie would amount to much and that was one of the funniest movies of the last few years. Will we be giving The Emoji Movie a chance? Be sure to share your thoughts in the comments. Directed by Anthony Leondis with an original screenplay co-written by Eric Siegel, The Emoji Movie has a release date of August 4, 2017.

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Sony Pictures Animation announced today that Emmy and Tony award winner James Corden (Into the Woods) and Emmy nominee Ilana Glazer (Broad City) would join previously announced T.J. Miller (Deadpool) to lead the cast of summer 2017’s animated comedy Emojimovie: Express Yourself.

Emojimovie: Express Yourself unlocks the never-before-seen secret world inside your smartphone. Hidden within the messaging app is Textopolis, a bustling city where all your favorite emojis live, hoping to be selected by the phone’s user. In this world, each emoji has only one facial expression – except for Gene (T.J. Miller), an exuberant emoji who was born without a filter and is bursting with multiple expressions. Determined to become “normal” like the other emojis, Gene enlists the help of his handy best friend Hi-5 (James Corden) and the notorious code breaker emoji Jailbreak (Ilana Glazer). Together, they embark on an epic “app-venture” through the apps on the phone,...

Get ready for an “app-venture” like no other with the first image for Sony’s animated flick, Emojimovie: Express Yourself.

Headlined by T.J. Miller of Deadpool fame – he can be seen here front and center as Gene, an anomaly of Textopolis because he, unlike his pixelated peers, can render more than a single emotion – there’s also word that James Corden (Into the Woods) and Ilana Glazer (Broad City) have climbed aboard to fill the supporting roles of Hi-5 and Jailbreak. As if things aren’t ridiculous enough, a bow-tied poo emoji sneaks into the frame, though there’s currently no mention of who will be lending their vocal chords to that particular emote.

One thing we do know for sure is that Tony Leondis is at the helm of Emojimovie: Express Yourself, directing from a script he penned alongside Eric Siegel. Drawing comparisons to Pixels and, in particular, The Lego Movie,...

Sony Pictures Animation has added James Corden and Broad City‘s Ilana Glazer to Emojimovie: Express Yourself, its summer 2017 pic that “reveals the Secret World inside your smartphone.” They join the previously set T.J. Miller in the lead voice cast. Check out the first image above. Anthony Leondis is directing the story that takes place in Textopolis, a bustling city where all your favorite emojis live, hoping to be selected by the phone's user. In this world, each emoji…...

Sony Animation has announced that actor T.J. Miller ("Deadpool") is set for the lead role in "Emojimovie: Express Yourself" for the studio.

The Anthony Leondis-directed film is said to reveal "the Secret World inside your phone. It's a world where Emojis come alive (when they're not being texted) and journey through Apps, each one its own wild and fun world, to get to their ultimate destination: The Cloud.

To celebrate the news, the studio has released an 'audition tape' showing Miller trying out for the role. The film is slated to open next year.

Source: Deadline...

Sony Animation today announced that T.J. Miller is set for the lead role in Emojimovie: Express Yourself, and released a humorous “audition tape.” The Anthony Leondis-directed pic, produced by Michelle Raimo Kouyate, “reveals the Secret World inside your phone. It's a world where Emojis come alive (when they're not being texted) and journey through Apps, each one its own wild and fun world, to get to their ultimate destination: The Cloud.&#8221…...

Sony Animation is pulling out all the stops to boost its output for 2017 and 2018, and the result is some fairly wide-ranging news regarding both the television and film side of the operation. With its animated Spider-Man feature already moving full-speed ahead – with Phil Lord and Chris Miller on board – and television series of both Ghostbusters and Cloudy With a Chance Of Meatballs in development, the biggest titles currently under discussion are Hotel Transylvania 3, that film’s overall franchise, and EmojiMovie: Express Yourself.

The Hotel Transylvania franchise

Recently, Sony announced that the director of the first two instalments of the highly successful franchise – Genndy Tartakovsky – had opted not to return for the third movie. This was widely acknowledged to be the result of his return to the Samurai Jack fold, since he was that show’s creator, and he just headed up a brand new season. However, having performed a rather nifty about-face,...

Sony Pictures Animation has always been the red-headed stepchild of studio animation arms. They’ve had a few big hits, a few mid-sized hits, and they’ve done a very good job of squeezing every possible penny out of the direct-to-video market with sequels to some of their titles. In the press release they sent out today, Sony made it clear that they’re doubling down on animation. Kristine Belson is the president of Sony Animation, answering directly to Tom Rothman, and she talked about letting artists drive the films they’re planning to make. It’s a pretty safe list overall, with an emphasis on pre-existing properties, and I have a hard time getting my head around how anyone is even remotely artistically moved by the idea of an Emoji movie. Some of the titles had already been announced, but there are new details on those, and some of the announcements were brand-new.

In a move signaling an expansion of its output and increased year-round production across multiple platforms, Sony Pictures Animation announced today its slate through 2018 which includes five theatrical features, three television series and one direct-to-video movie.

Kristine Belson, President of Sony Pictures Animation, says:

"We are meaningfully stepping up our level of production, while creating an environment that fosters the best talent. Our goal is to enlarge our presence in the animation landscape with a uniquely diverse slate, and our strategy to get there is to let artists drive the movies creatively."

Tom Rothman, Chairman of Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, adds:

"I could not be more proud of the way Kristine Belson has rebuilt Sony Pictures Animation into the boldest home for animation in the industry."

Sony Pictures Animation's slate includes a diverse mix of originals and franchises, some previously announced, each with its own unique style and tone,...

Sony Pictures Animation on Monday afternoon unveiled a blockbuster film and television slate through 2018 that made no secret of the properties the studio values most highly.

The multi-platform roster includes features of Spider-Man, Emojimovie and new instalments in the Hotel Transylvania and Smurfs franchises, as well as a TV outing for Ghostbusters.

Emojimovie: Express Yourself will open in August 2017 and explores the world of the characters beloved by cell phone users. Anthony Leondis directs from a screenplay he wrote with Eric Siegel. Michelle Raimo Kouyate produces.

Smurfs: The Lost Village is earmarked for April 7, 2017. Kelly Asbury directs from a screenplay by Stacey Harman and Pamela Ribon based on the characters and works of Peyo. Jordan Kerner produces and the voice cast includes Demi Lovato, Jack McBrayer, Joe Manganiello, Danny Pudi, Rainn Wilson and Mandy Patinkin.

Christmas story The Star (working title) is being made in association with The Jim Henson Company and set for December 8, 2017. Timothy Reckart directs...

Labelled as yet another example of 'the end of civilization' in some social media posts, it looks like Sony Pictures' proposed 'Emoji Movie' may have hit a snag. THR reports that Marco Husges, a former video game executive who lives in Germany, seems to have all the merchandise trademarks for emojis.

First created by mobile-phone operators in Japan in the late 1990s, Husges doesn't own the rights to the digital icons on phones and social media. However, as founder of The Emoji Co. he has created more than 3,000 of his own icons and trademarked and licensed them for use on an array of merchandise.

Husges claims to be surprised that Sony Pictures Animation announced "The Emoji Movie" dated for August 2017. Sony filed applications for dozens of trademarks in connection with its project in October, trademarks which have since been rejected.

Husges tells the trade: "I am curious how Sony would...

When Sony announced they had won a bidding war against two other studios to make The Emoji Movie, an animated feature based on emojis, we were like [insert Wtf face emoji here]. Now we know what the pitch from Eric Siegel (producer on the TBS series Men at Work) and Anthony Leondis (director of the animated series Kung Fu Panda: Series of the Masters and the delayed […]

The post The Pitch for the Emoji Movie Revealed [CinemaCon 2016] appeared first on /Film.

Sony Pictures Animation stirred all kinds of emotions when it first confirmed plans to build a feature film based on Emoji – Smiley emoticons, confused emotions, angry emoticons, you name it – but perhaps the one reaction that resounded around the four corners of the Internet was a general feeling of apathy.

But low and behold, The Emoji Movie is beginning to ease the wheels into motion, after the studio outlined some preliminary details and plot points during the ongoing CinemaCon event in Las Vegas. Situated in a place known as Emoji Valley, the movie looks to be rooted within the cybernetic walls of a mobile phone – think Disney’s Wreck-It Ralph – centering on a group of Emoji going about their daily business.

The first and all-too-brief plot description reads as so: “Inside your phone, there’s a secret world– and we enter through the text app where we discover Emoji Valley,...

Though many balked at its announcement, Sony Pictures Animation has reminded us all that its Emoji Movie is still very much in development, and it has a new release date to call its own: August 11, 2017.

It was just one of a number of animated features that the studio dated, with the other notable reshuffling arriving in the form of Chris Lord and Phil Miller’s animated Spider-Man movie, which has shied away from its tentative 2017 window – logical, given that Marvel’s live-action feature is due in 2017 – and taken up residence at December 21, 2018.

Lord and Miller are currently pitching a treatment for the animated film and are set to go on to produce. They’ll stop short of directing, though, with a certain Han Solo spinoff movie looming on the horizon as the creative pair begin to make tracks for the Star Wars universe.

This is by no means the first...

You’re welcome, Jimmy. We reported on Tuesday about a bidding war between rival studios over a film based on emoji – Sony won, by the way, and Eric Siegel and Anthony Leondis will be writing with Leondis directing. We have no idea what an emoji story looks like, but inspired by our story, Jimmy Kimmel did a skit this week imagining a serious take on the concept. Claiming to to have landed a copy of the script, he brought out Brie Larson (herself recently cast in Kong: Skul…...

You’re welcome, Jimmy. We reported on Tuesday about a bidding war between rival studios over a film based on emoji – Sony won, by the way, and Eric Siegel and Anthony Leondis will be writing with Leondis directing. We have no idea what an emoji story looks like, but inspired by our story, Jimmy Kimmel did a skit this week imagining a serious take on the concept. Claiming to to have landed a copy of the script, he brought out Brie Larson (herself recently cast in Kong: Skul…...

X-Men: Apocalypse: A new photo from X-Men: Apocalypse gives a behind-the-scenes, rubble-filled peek at Cairo, the city where Professor Xavier (James McAvoy) first discovered Storm (Alexandra Shipp) in the Uncanny X-Men comic book series, and a continuing refuge for Storm over the years. Look for the movie in theaters on May 27, 2016. [The Hollywood Reporter]   Emoji: Sony Pictures Animation will develop an animated movie starring Emoji, the small digital images or figures often used in social media communications. Eric Siegel and Anthony Leondis will write the screenplay, and Leondis is set to direct. Leondis is an animation veteran whose credits include the 2008 family comedy Igor. [Deadline]   6000: Japanese comic book 6000: Rokusen is heading to the big...

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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 (c) 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...

Sony Pictures Animation won an auction between three studios for an animated movie pitch centering on the Emoji, which are icons often used in social media to express emotions and objects. The project will be co-written by Eric Siegel and Anthony Leondis. It will be directed by Leondis (Igor, Kung Fu Panda: Secrets of the Masters), who initially pitched the project to studios (Sony, Warner Bros, Paramount), with storyboards highlighting details of the story. The attractive thing about an "Emoji" movie is that there are no rights to purchase. Because of that, there is already another similar project being shopped around.

It was going to happen eventually, wasn't it? A Hollywood movie about emojis is in the works.

Sony Pictures Animation won a three-studio auction to produce an animated movie centring around the popular colourful emoticons. All of your favourites will be there, including smiley face, confused face, angry face and of course, the pile of poo.

Can you guess the 15 films from the emojis? Play our quiz

Eric Siegel and Anthony Leondis (Kung Fu Panda) will write the project, with Leondis also directing, Deadline reports.

There is also another potential movie about emojis being shopped around studios, so be prepared for more than one.

Has Hollywood lost its marbles? An emoji film is in the works ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ http://t.co/5MvDxfXnRG

— Digital Spy Film (@digitalspyfilm) July 22, 2015

The project follows several computer, video game and toy-related animated films in recent years, including The Lego Movie, Wreck-It Ralph and Pixels.

World Emoji...