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Sony Pictures Animation (SPA) announced today that its upcoming animated Spider-Man movie found a director, a new Ghostbusters series is heading to television and the emoji movie has a name.
The Spider-Man movie, which will be released in 2018 and features a script written by The Lego Movie's Phil Lord and Chris Miller, will be directed by Bob Persichetti. Persichetti served as the head of story on previous animated films like Puss in Boots and The Little Prince, which will be released on Netflix in August.
Sony didn't specify whether the animated Spider-Man film would focus on Miles Morales as online speculation has suggested, but the studio has suggested that it was a role they were interested in pursuing. Donald Glover has been asking for years to do something with the character, and while Sony hasn't given him his own Spider-Man film to play Morales, has cast him in the upcoming live-action, stand-alone Spider-Man: Homecoming being made in collaboration with Marvel.
The studio also confirmed that it was looking to amp up its television production and planned on doing so with a couple of new shows, including an animated Ghostbusters series. The new show, called Ghostbusters: Ecto Force, will be an animated series set in 2050 and will follow a group of ghostbusters who use the help of people from around the world to capture ghosts.
SPA will also bring a few of its popular films, including Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and Hotel Transylvania, to the small screen. The first will continue the adventures of Flint and Sam from the original 2009 movie and will be produced in partnership with Teletoon Canada for a 2017 debut. The Hotel Transylvania series will follow Dracula's teenage daughter, Mavis, and her adventures with her friends. It's slated to air on the Disney Channel sometime in 2017.
Finally, SPA confirmed that the emoji movie would be called Emojimovie: Express Yourself. The movie is slated to be released in August 2017, and will showcase a "surprising and comedic" take on our smartphones and the emoji that live in Emojiland. While the emoji will appear similar to the ones iPhone and Android users use on a daily basis, it will actually be an entirely new line of emoji created specifically for the film to avoid infringing on different copyrights.
