'The Angry Birds Movie 3' Makes Sega-Friendly Flight To Paramount

The video game movie franchise is moving distributors to keep things close for its new owners

I am not an Angry Birds guy. I didn’t get hooked when everyone else did. But there’s definitely some intriguing aspects to the news that broke Tuesday. The Angry Birds Movie 3, which announced it had begun production in June produced by Rovio Animation, Prime Focus Studios, One Cool Films, Flywheel Media, and Dentsu, was officially flying from Sony to Paramount for a January 29, 2027 release.

Jason Sudeikis, Josh Gad, Rachel Bloom and Danny McBride are all reprising their roles as Red, Chuck, Silver and Bomb, respectively. They are joined this go-round by current Saturday Night Live cast members James Austin Johnson and Marcello Hernandez, Keke Palmer, Tim Robinson, his Detroiters co-star Sam Richardson, Lily James, Percy Jackson himself Walker Scobell, Anna Cathcart, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Nikki Glaser, Emma Myers, and… Psalm West? The announcement of the cast revived the film’s Twitter account after more than five years. John Rice, who has been with the franchise for both films, is directing from a screenplay by his co-director of the sequel, Thurop Van Orman, who also is executive producing alongside Toru Nakahara. The film is produced by John Cohen, Dan Chuba, and Carla Connor, and scored by the returning Heitor Pereira.

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Both of the first 2 films, released in 2016 and 2019, were distributed by Sony, with 2 being made a Sony Pictures Animation co-production. As much as it would be cool for that company to have a heftier theatrical slate, the move makes all the sense in the world. See from April to August 2023, Rovio Entertainment was purchased by Sega, thus making them a producer too. Sega is of course known for Sonic the Hedgehog, and with Paramount they’ve created a billion-dollar three-film franchise starring Ben Schwartz, Jim Carrey, James Marsden, and Idris Elba, whose Knuckles the Echidna starred in a Paramount+ miniseries released months before the third film. A fourth film is currently scheduled for a 2027 release as well, just 7 weeks later on March 19. Rovio is releasing its first Sonic game, Sonic Rumble, later this year. On top of that, a Golden Axe animated series is being made for Paramount-owned Comedy Central.

With so many parties involved, of course each of them put out a statement, like Cohen, who said “We’re very excited to be partnering with Paramount Pictures and extremely proud of our incredible cast. Not only do we have Jason, Josh, Rachel and Danny returning to voice their fantastic characters, but they’re surrounded by an all-star ensemble of comedic talent. These are some of the funniest people out there today, and we’re so thrilled to have them all on board.”

Marc Weinstock, the President of Worldwide Marketing & Distribution at Paramount Pictures said: “Angry Birds transcends mediums and has been embraced and celebrated the world over. We couldn’t be happier to be partnering with Sega/Rovio and these other great partners to bring this latest installment, featuring an incredible voice cast, to big screens everywhere.”

Alex Pelletier-Normand, the CEO of Rovio Entertainment chimed in with “The Angry Birds brand has demonstrated remarkable versatility, evolving from a global mobile gaming phenomenon to licensed products, animation, and a thriving cinematic franchise. It has been a deeply collaborative effort to create a film that will resonate with the millions who interact with our catalog of games and products every day. We are confident that with this talented team at the helm, The Angry Birds Movie 3 will delight longtime fans and create new fans in those discovering our flock for the first time.”

Don McGregor, the founder and CEO and Flywheel Media, said: “We’re thrilled to announce that our first theatrical distribution partnership is with Paramount Pictures. As a film production company focused on bringing the best family movies to global audiences, we couldn’t have a better start than The Angry Birds Movie 3.”

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Source: Deadline