Developer Rovio has hit a paydirt with its popular smartphone puzzler Angry Birds, and now it’s planning to turn the game into a movie.
Despite the fact that a good film based on a videogame has yet to come out of Hollywood, people keep on trying to make one. Well, theoretically. They certainly keep on making movies based on games. As it turns out, the latest title in development for a celluloid treatment is Angry Birds, a popular smartphone puzzle game.
Mikael Hed, the CEO of Rovio (the developer behind Angry Birds), recently revealed to Reuters that his company is currently meeting with various Hollywood studios about developing the popular game into a movie.
Angry Birds is known for many things: charming artwork, challenging puzzles, and addictive gameplay. It isn’t known for an amazing plot, though, since the story is all about how a bunch of birds are slingshot across a screen in order to get their eggs back from the pigs who stole them. Exactly what the movie adaptation would be about remains to be seen.
According to Hed, though, he wants to turn Angry Birds into a, “fully-fledged entertainment brand,” similar to what Pixar has done with its various movies. “We want to go beyond games,” Hed said.
The app, which sells for $0.99 on the iPhone, has been downloaded over 6.5 million times since it was released. Meanwhile, the free version of the game (which features much more limited content) has been downloaded over 11 million times. Versions of the game are coming to the Palm and Android platforms in the next couple of weeks, and ports for PSP, Wii, and DSi consoles are all planned, too.
As someone who often finds himself playing Angry Birds during particularly boring class lectures, I have no problem admitting that the game is great fun. However, I’m not sure it’s worthy of getting made into a movie. In order to be great, movies require compelling plots and relatable characters, and Angry Birds doesn’t really have either.
