EXCLUSIVE - Created and fully-financed by Finland’s entertainment giant Rovio, the 3D animated comedy The Angry Birds Movie based on the famous Angry Birds game franchise opened in more than 50 territories this week. Mikael Hed, (pictured) Executive Chairman of Rovio Animation and Executive Producer on the film spoke to us from L.A.

When did you first come up with the idea of bringing the Angry Birds game universe to the silver screen and why?
Mikael Hed: Back in 2010 I got a phone from a Hollywood Studio who asked if we’d consider licensing the rights of the Angry Birds game to make it into a feature film. That was the first time we got a validation of the brand’s theatrical potential. 

But we had big ambitions from the very outset and designed Angry Birds in such a way that the franchise would lend itself to more than just a game. 

For instance when we first went into animation with a TV series based on the characters, we deliberately chose not to let the characters speak or introduce their new design with limbs because we wanted to keep that for the feature film version. Story-wise, we also chose to tell the original story of the birds and pigs and tried to open up the universe as wide as possible. 

So in a way, although the game was made in 2009 and the movie seven years later, it feels as if we tell the whole story for the first time and that the movie is a starting point for us.

I read that Marvel Studios’ former chairman David Maisel who is executive producer on this film, was instrumental in helping you produce it on your own….  
MH: Yes David had a decisive influence. He had founded Marvel Studios and produced Iron Man in an unusual way. When he did that Marvel was a comic book company and they were licensing their characters to film studios. He demonstrated the advantage of producing a movie outside the studio system while keeping ownership and creative control of your brand. 

When we met, I immediately thought: here is someone who has actually done it. Marvel had no background in making their own movies, but David created a film studio to be reckoned with. 

Although at the beginning we were not 100% sure if we would produce the movie ourselves, we ended up doing it to take full control of the creative and financing process and to protect the brand. 

Another US heavyweight and animation specialist, John Cohen (a producer of Despicable Me) seems to have played a key role in lifting the project?
MH: Absolutely. He had worked with Chris Meledandri to set up Illumination Studios and they had worked on a new cost-efficient business model whereby Illumination had a small in-house creative team but the bulk of the animation was outsourced. 

And that’s the model you’ve applied for Angry Birds?
MH: Yes. Basically Rovio Animation took all the creative decisions in-house. Jon Vitti [The Simpsons] wrote the screenplay based on a story that I wrote together with Mikko Pöllä and John Cohen, we created the storyboard and hired the directors -animation specialists Clay Katis [Frozen, Wreck-It Ralph] and Fergal Reilly [Hotel Transylvania, The Smurfs]. But the heavy animation work was done by Sony Pictures Imageworks in Vancouver. 

We signed a separate distribution deal with Sony Pictures Entertainment for the worldwide release of the film.

At the end what was the budget and did you stick to the original budget? MH: We delivered the movie under budget and on schedule. We made it for $73 million. I’m very proud we were able to make it for that budget, in a very cost-effective way without having to make any compromises in the film quality at all. 

The film is coming out in more than 50 territories this week, and next week it will open in the US and even in China, which is quite a coup…
MH: We’ve had a fantastic collaboration with Sony/Columbia Pictures and this deal with China is the coolest thing ever!

The fact that the film was created and funded by Rovio Animation - a European production company - was a decisive factor in our negotiations. 

Now that the judgment day has arrived how do you feel? Are you very nervous or confident?
MH: From a movie making perspective, we’ve done the best we could do and I’m sure the audience will love it. I’m confident but then…you never really know until the movie opens. 

You’re not too bothered by the fact that the media has made headlines with Rovio’s financial difficulties and need to have a hit to relaunch the Angry Birds brand? MH: People have their own opinion. All we can do is our very best and deliver a great product. This is what we’ve done. 

You must have learnt a lot by making this movie. Is your plan to continue to produce feature films? 
MH: Our ambitions are as big as ever. So yes. We’d like to make more movies. 

Will you continue to produce in the US or go the European route?
MH: It depends very much on each project. We want to collaborate in Europe, especially in Finland, but at the same time, we know that the Finnish Film Foundation has a limited amount of resources and we don’t want to be unfair to other local filmmakers, so it will be on a case by case level.

Photo Credit: Walter Lockwood