Angry Birds: Hollywood Veterans To Direct Film

An upcoming 3D animated film based on Rovio's bestselling app Angry Birds is to be directed by Fergal Reilly of Spider-Man 2 and Clay Kaytis of Tangled fame.

The game on which the new movie is based has many admirers, including Prime Minister David Cameron.

It has become one of the world's biggest entertainment franchises, and since its launch in 2009, it has become the number one paid app of all time.

Speaking on Sky's Jeff Randall Live, Jami Laes, head of the games division at Rovio Entertainment, said: "Early on, it was quite clear that something about the game, about the characters, about the world, really engaged the fans in a huge way."

The success of the Angry Birds franchise has benefited the company's bottom line.

In 2012, it more than doubled its revenue to £129.09m with a quarter of a billion people playing the games every month.

Almost half of its revenue came from merchandising last year as fans bought toys and other branded physical versions of their favourite characters.

The 3D movie is the company's first foray into feature films, but fans have already been introduced into an expanded Angry Birds world via its weekly animated series Angry Birds Toons.

The cartoon, which was released in March, has had more than one billion views.

Mr Laes said of the new film: "I do think the fans will be highly delighted about the movie experience which we're bringing out on July 1, 2016."

And on the future he added: "We are thinking broader than entertainment.

"There are other things that are important for us as company values - entertainment, education and entrepreneurship overall."