iPhone/iPad Game Angry Birds Being Developed Into A Movie?

Angry Birds is probably the most addictive game on the iPhone or iPad. The game basically involves slingshotting various different types of birds, each with different atributes (one can slingshot for instance, where another drops a egg bomb) at structures housing green pig creatures. The goal is not to knock down the structures, but to kill the pigs. Of course, knocking down the structures is how you accomplish this, and the puzzels can be quite challenging, but not too challenging — it's always fun.

"Lemme tell ya, these ain't no ordinary finches we're talkin' about. These here are the Angry Birds, the ones that's gonna kick you in the 'nads. And they're the ones on your side. They must be from Galapadapados, or sumptin'." – Col. Angus, Bird Expert. The survival of the Angry Birds is at stake. Dish out revenge on the green pigs who stole the Birds' eggs. Use the unique destructive powers of the Angry Birds to lay waste to the pigs' fortified castles. Angry Birds features hours of gameplay, challenging physics-based castle demolition, and lots of replay value. Each of the 120 levels requires logic, skill, and brute force to crush the enemy. Protect wildlife or play Angry Birds!

The game has sold more than 6.5 million paid downloads so far (99 cents each), 11 million downloads of the limited feature free version, and over 200,000 sales of the $4.99 iPad version. Finnish game developer Rovio released a small animated short introducing the characters, which has already been downloaded over five million times on YouTube (watch it after the jump).

The company now wants to turn the property into a major franchise that "crosses over to other platforms — from TV shows and movies to toys and comicbooks." Mikael Hed, CEO of Rovio Mobile, tells Variety that they hope to flesh out the characters and turn their world into an "evergreen franchise for years to come."

A movie could take three years before it is released, but Hed believes a big screen adaptation should probably resemble the claymation features for which Aardman Animation has become known. Sounds like the right place to start, but can a strategy game about slingshotting birds really be turned into a feature length film? It definitely has enough content for one elaborate/fun attack action sequence. And yes, it is ripe for 3D...

Here are some of the videos produced by Rovio for the mobile game series thus far:

Angry Birds Cinematic Trailer:

In Game Trailer: