The unfortunate impact of The Lego Movie is that studios now believe they can turn literally anything into a movie. And so Sony Pictures Animation came up with the bright idea to take those really annoying emoji we all use in our social networking lives (I'm guilty of it, too) and make them into a film, EmojiMovie: Express Yourself. And now we know who will be lending his voice to those little smiley faces, or at least one of them: Deadpool star TJ Miller.
Sony revealed the news (on World Emoji Day, f'real) via a clever video showing Miller's audition in which he tries to emulate popular emoji, only to learn the movie is actually animated. Whomp whomp. He'll be voicing Gene, an emoji whose positive, optimistic attitude prevents him from being just another "meh" emoji like the rest of his family. However Gene develops a glitch that causes him to have multiple expressions well beyond his control.
The film will be directed by Anthony Leondis (Igor) and opens August 11th 2017. Miller can be seen on HBO's Silicon Valley and is currently shooting Steven Spielberg's Ready Player One.
