Emojis: Now there's a movie coming

Sony Pictures Animation said Monday that it will produce an animated movie about "the secret world of our phones and the beloved characters that have become daily necessities in global interpersonal communication."

"Emojimovie: Express Yourself" is due in August 2017. It will be written by Eric Siegel and Anthony Leondis and directed by Leondis. He previously wrote and directed "Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch" and "Igor."

Sounds like a hit to you Studios seem to think so. Deadline had earlier reported that Sony beat out two other movie studios bidding for the movie, paying "near seven figures" for the title.

So what emojis might make the cut and appear in the movie The smiley seems the likely star and is the most-used emoji in every country except France, according to a SwiftKey study published in 2015. In France, the heart emoji is the favorite.

Emojis first appeared on cell phones in 1999 when NTT DoCoMo launched its i-Mode wireless Internet service in Japan. Since then, they have spread worldwide and are available on all modern smartphones, messaging systems and computers.

Emojis' Japanese roots explain some of the stranger characters, which might mean little to people in the West but related to some important cultural festivals, food or other aspects of Japanese life.