Every famous character eventually gets their shot at a film, and given that pretenders such as Angry Birds are already squawking their way towards our screens, it’s perhaps only right that something with even more history should join the avalanche. Prepare thyself, then, for news that a Hello Kitty movie is in the works{
It’s all part of a plan by “Japanese character and lifestyle business” – no sugar-coating there – Sanrio, which has the rights to the Kitty character and is looking to develop a movie for launch in 2019 around the world, which sort of makes it sound like Skynet’s big plan, if the malignant machine was aiming to swamp us with cute, stylised creatures, not destroy us with nuclear weapons.
Hello Kitty, which was originally initially known as “the white kitten with no name”, was created by Yuko Shimizu and introduced in Japan in 1975 before spreading globally in 1976. Oh, and she’s not technically a cat – she’s supposed to be a little girl named Kitty White, who was born in the London suburbs. She’s five apples high and weighs three apples, but you knew that already, right?
What she’ll be doing in the film is anyone’s guess, as no details have been released. But Sanrio – which makes billions from the rights – is looking to spend between $162-$242 million on this project.