While celebrating the third anniversary of the release of the original Angry Birds game, Rovio announced today that its popular franchise will soon become a motion picture. The movie is scheduled to hit theaters in the summer of 2016 and some big-name Hollywood execs have signed on to produce the feature.
While the Angry Birds movie will be produced and financed by Rovio, John Cohen, the producer of Despicable Me, has also signed on to produce the flick. In addition, David Maisel, the former Chairman of Marvel Studios and the executive producer of Iron Man, has signed on to be the executive producer of the Angry Birds movie.
“John’s an exceptionally talented producer, and we’re delighted to have him join the flock,” said Mikael Hed, CEO of Rovio. “With John’s hands-on producer background and David´s expertise in establishing and running his own successful studio, these two are the dream team for making a movie outside the studio system. Both professionals have the ideal skills and vision to achieve incredible things.”
Before producing Despicable Me, Cohen was vice president of production at Twentieth Century Fox Animation.
“I’m so excited and honored to be working on this film with Mikael, David, and Rovio’s incredibly talented game developers and artists,” said Cohen. “From both an entertainment and strategic perspective, Rovio is at the forefront of game innovation and is trailblazing terrific new ways for Angry Birds fans to interact with these characters. I’ve personally spent countless hours playing the Angry Birds games over the last few years, which I can now happily justify as research for the movie.”
Rovio is producing and financing the movie itself to make sure it stays in full creative control of the project. Though the Angry Birds brand has spawned games, books, toys, and even a Star Wars tie-in, this will be the first movie Rovio has made. Judging by the quality of nearly every movie based on a video game, the Angry Birds movie could easily be the best movie based on a video game ever made.
