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 time that Lord and Miller have collaborated with Sony on a feature film, after rising to prominence through their work on Cloud With a Chance of Meatballs, not to mention the barnstorming success of The LEGO Movie and its many planned sequels and offshoots. As for the twosome’s rendition of an animated Spider-Man, it remains to be seen how the movie will differentiate itself from the one toplined by Marvel Cinematic Universe newcomer Tom Holland.
Capping off Sony’s information rollout was Peter Rabbit, which will now release in theaters on March 23, 2018. In terms of the Emoji Movie, Eric Siegel (Men At Work) and Anthony Leondis (Igor) penned the script, with the latter on board to direct. It’s due to release first on August 11, 2017, before the untitled Spider-Man movie swings into action on December 21, 2018.