The Angry Birds Movie is happening, and there's nothing you can do about it. Those explosive feathered folk from the massively popular game series are on their way to the big screen, and they'll be squarking all over your local multiplexes come 2016. Today it's been announced that the two directors guiding them are Fergal Reilly and Clay Kaytis.
Reilly has been predominantly a storyboard artist on a number of other Sony projects, including Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs, Hotel Transylvania, **Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2 **and Spider-Man 2. Kaytis, meanwhile, has worked with Disney as an animator on Tangled, Tangled Ever After, the upcoming Frozen, Wreck-It Ralp****h's excellent end credits sequence (which he also came up with) and Paperman, the extraordinary Oscar-winning short that came before Wreck-It Ralph.
Producer John Cohen had this to say about the new directorial pairing: "They both have an extraordinary range of talents, and we’re looking forward to working with them to bring the birds and pigs to life on the big screen." Now there's a sentence.
On writing duties is veteran comedy scribe Jon Vitti, who's best known for his work on The American Office and The Simpsons, but really has a CV as long as you could possibly imagine, so check out his extensive IMDb page. Warning: contains mention of Alvin And The Chipmunks: The Squeakquel.
There are big questions to ask now, aside from who will voice which type of bird, and which Hollywood character actor will evil it up in an villainous pig role. How can we invest in characters that are destined to explode and die? Will they go to space? What the heck did the pigs do to the birds in the first place? Will there be any Star Wars cameos? Why are the pigs green again? Why do the birds have no wings or legs?
To give you an idea just how popular the Angry Birds brand is, the Finnish company behind it, Rovio, reported a $200 million turnover in 2012, with $71 million of that as profit. These birds are big business, and they're bound to have their young fans flocking into cinemas in their thousands come the film's planned release date, July 1, 2016. For a taste of what to expect, check out the online shorts below.